The California Impressionists at Laguna
By Jack Becker with an essay by William H. Gerdts
Softcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Lyme Historical Society (2000)
ISBN-10: 1-8808-9720-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-8808-9720-1
Product Size: 0.1 x 8 x 10.4 inches

The California Impressionists at Laguna examines the accomplishments of a group of American painters who were part of an art colony in the coastal community of Laguna Beach, some fifty miles south of Los Angeles. Artists were drawn there by the region’s spectacular scenery, its quality of light, and by a climate that was ideally suited to painting en plein air year-round. Off the beaten track, Laguna was an unspoiled, captivating place that fostered one of the major centers of American Impressionism in the early decades of the 20^th century.

Some 3,000 miles away, at roughly the same time, another art colony and center of Impressionism flourished in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Woven throughout this exhibition catalogue is the conviction that there is much to be gained by a focused comparison between these two chosen destinations for American artists. Interspersed with 25 color plates and 8 black and white figures, the principal essay explores thematic and stylistic parallels and illustrates how each colony helped to construct an identity for its region that lingers in the imagination today.