Alex Mann presents Sargent, Whistler and Venetian Glass

Smithsonian American Art Museum Curator Alex Mann will share a presentation on his exhibition, Sargent, Whistler and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano.

The exhibition is the first comprehensive examination of the American Grand Tour to Venice in the late nineteenth century, revealing the glass furnaces and their new creative boom as a vibrant facet of the city’s allure.

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In the late nineteenth century, countless American artists flocked to Venice for its beautiful setting and rich cultural heritage. Lesser known today is the reputation of Venice in that era for artistic experimentation, conspicuously visible in the prize-winning works of Murano’s recently revitalized glass industry. Sargent, Whistler, and many other visiting artists observed glassmakers and bead stringers and embraced these quintessentially Venetian artisans as subjects for paintings and prints. This online “tour” will consider specifically the role of printmaking in this exhibition as a primary component of Venice’s reputation as a creative crossroads. Discover how the Venetian glass revival was a catalyst for the work of Whistler, Frank Duveneck, James McBey, Ellen Day Hale, and their compatriots.