The Fleischer Collection is the earliest significant and one of the most extensive collections dedicated to California Impressionism. It was formed in 1983 at a time when works from this pivotal American art style were just coming to the fore and examples were easily available and relatively inexpensive. An essay by art historian Jean Stern on the Fleischer Collection, the earliest and one of the most extensive collections dedicated to California Impressionism. “The Fleischer Collection: Masterworks of California Impressionism.” is published by The Irvine Museum.

The Fleischer Collection: Masterworks of California Impressionism

Edgar Payne

Jean Stern

William Wendt

Granville Redmond

Alson Clark

Guy Rose

Arts & Photography

The Irvine Museum

One of the most gifted of the historic California plein-air painters, Edgar Alwin Payne (1883-1947) utilized the animated brushwork, vibrant palette, and shimmering light of Impressionism, but his powerful imagery was unique among artists of his generation. While his contemporaries favored a quieter, more idyllic representation of the natural landscape, Payne was devoted to subjects of rugged beauty. Largely self-taught, he found inspiration and instruction in nature itself. His majestic, vital landscapes, informed by his reverence for the natural world, are imbued with an internal force and an active dynamism. An avid traveler, Payne was among the first painters to capture the vigor of the Sierra Nevada, and his travels through the Southwest resulted in equally magnificent depictions of the desert. In Europe he rendered the towering peaks of the Alps and the colorful harbors of France and Italy. His unending quest to convey the ""unspeakably sublime"" in his landscapes won him widespread acclaim-one prominent critic called him a ""poet who sings in colors."" Released in conjunction with the traveling exhibition organized by the Pasadena Museum of California Art, Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey presents more than 125 reproductions of Payne's paintings, drawings, and decorative arts, as well as rarely seen photographs from the artist's travels and selections from his personal collection of compositional studies. Essays by Peter H. Hassrick, Lisa N. Peters, Scott A. Shields, Jean Stern, and Patricia Trenton trace Payne's development as he traveled the world, discovering magnificence in diverse settings ranging from the California coast, the Sierra Nevada, and the stark Southwest desert to the Swiss Alps and the harbors and waterways of Europe. A richly researched chronology by Shields presents the biographical influences that shaped Payne's illustrious career.

Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey

Scott Shields

Lisa Peters

Peter Hassrick

Pat Trenton

History & Criticism

Pomegranate Communications

The years around the turn of the century were a dynamic time in American art. Different and seemingly contradictory movements were evolving, and the dominant style that emerged during this period was Impressionism. Based in part on the broken brushwork and high-keyed palette of Claude Monet, it was a form especially suited to the dramatic landscape and shimmering light of California. American Impressionism grew in popularity as artists from across the nation migrated to the Golden State. There they created a remarkable style, often referred to as California plein-air painting, combining several aspects of American and European art and capturing the brilliant mix of color and light that defined California. This book celebrates forty Impressionist painters who worked in California from 1900 through the beginning of the Great Depression. A joint effort of The Irvine Museum and the Georgia Museum of Art, it includes widely recognized California artists such as Maurice Braun and Guy Rose, less well known artists such as Mary DeNeale Morgan and Donna Schuster, and eastern painters who worked briefly in the region, such as Childe Hassam and William Merritt Chase. The contributors' essays examine the socioeconomic forces that shaped this art movement, as well as the ways in which the art reflected California's self-cultivated image as a healthful, sun-splashed arcadia. Beautifully illustrated, with 72 full-color plates, California Impressionists recreates the vibrant splendor of a unique period in American art.

California Impressionists

Susan Landauer

Donald D. Keyes

Children's Books

Irvine Museum; Georgia Museum of Art

Selections from the permanent collection of the Fleischer Museum and loans from the Paul and Kathleen Bagley collection. Essays by Jean Stern.

American Impressionism California School Fleischer Museum

FFCA Publishing Company

Romance of the Bells: The California Missions in Art

Romance of the bells: The California missions in art

Beautifully illustrated. Contributions from Jean Stern, Gerald J. Miller, Pamela Hallan-Gibson, and Norman Neuerburg. 128p. Measures 8.5x11 inches.

Mounted as the first exhibition of California Impressionist paintings, the Irvine Museum exhibit drew record crowds in Paris and throughout Europe. This book contains some of the very best work of 58 California artists, some of whom studied in France including Alson Clark, Alfred Mitchell, Guy Rose, William Ritschel and many others. 200 pages, 110 color illustrations.

Masters of Light: Plein-Air Painting in California 1890-1930

Irvine Museum

The Valentien Watercolor Collection: In 1908, artist Albert R. Valentien (1862-1925) accepted a commission from San Diego philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps to paint a series of California wildflowers. 325 Color illustrations and 10 black-and-white illustrations.

Plant Portraits: The California Legacy of A. R. Valentien

Peter Raven

Margaret N. Dykens

Exequiel Ezcurra

The Irvine Museum and San Diego Natural Histo Mus.

A beautifully illustrated and exeptional book. Tthe first fully comprehensive book on one of California's most important artists. Contains a complete bibliography, a checklist of the exhibit, chronology and essays on Wendt's life and art. 320pp. 305 Color and 32 Color Illus. ISBN 978-0-9821201-0-1.

In Nature's Temple, the Life and Art of William Wendt

Will South

Janet Blake

The Irvine Museum-Laguna Art Museum

A completely updated of the 1992 edition of Selections as teh Irvine Museum has grown and matured significantly in the past seventeen years. 271 pages.

Selections from The Irvine Museum

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Books by Jean Stern