Exhibition: Beauty Beheld

On exhibition May 18, 2023 - July 14, 2023

A preeminent nineteenth-century landscape painter, George Inness once mused that an artwork’s primary end is to “awaken an emotion... [and] the true beauty of the work consists in the beauty of the sentiment or emotion which it inspires.” Half a century later, Jane Peterson echoed Inness’ conclusion that beauty is central to art when stating, “In the final analysis our only contribution down through the ages will be our record of the beauty of expression...Let the generations come to know that artistically...we tried to find beauty!”

This spring, Vose Galleries is pleased to present Beauty Beheld, a large-scale exhibit that examines the singular ways in which American artists have striven to “hold” beauty on canvas throughout the centuries. Beauty Beheld features important nineteenth-century paintings including Albert Bierstadt’s rare Moonlit Waterfront Landscape, T. Worthington Whittredge’s lovely Cold Spring, New York, from the Hudson, and Philip Leslie Hale’s striking L’Ete (Summer). The exhibit also showcases a number of excellent twentieth-century works that are fresh to the market such as Grandma Moses’s uniquely delightful Give Us a Ride, and Jane Peterson’s vibrant impressionist Venetian scene, Campo Santa Margherita, Venice. The exhibition will be viewable online and in the gallery through June 30th.