Destinations in Paintings: The Kasten Collection

Sun, 05/18/2014 – Sun, 09/14/2014

Butz Gallery

The paintings in the exhibition Destinations in Paintings: Kasten Collection depict scenes from artists’ travels. Viewing them is like being transported to another time—from the 1860s through the 1920s—and to other places including Europe and Asia. During the second half of the nineteenth century, new modes of transportation (trains and luxury ships) made it possible for middle-class artists to study, live, and travel abroad. These realist painters who illustrated their journeys belonged to a new international art world, marked by transnational exhibitions and world’s fairs. This exhibition featured thirty-two paintings by twenty-eight artists from seven countries, including the Frenchman Jean-Louis-Ernst Meissonier, Great Britain’s Richard Redgrave, Philadelphia native Daniel Ridgway Knight, and his son Louis Aston Knight, who was born in France.

We thank Alex and Barbara Kasten of Bluffington, South Carolina, for generously lending their fascinating collection.

Featured image: Detlev Nitschke (b. 1935), Venise, oil on canvas, Kasten Collection