• Save Image

• Enlarge

This book explores the American impressionists' relationship with Italy and with Florence in particular, in the decades spanning the close of the 19th and dawn of the 20th centuries. There was a marked upswing in the number of American artists travelling to Europe after the Civil War ended in 1865 and the trend continued on into the early 20th century. Hundreds of painters came to Paris and other parts of France while others studied in Germany, with England, Holland and Spain being other favourite locations. Strong ties linked the old world to the new, as well as the cosmopolitan ambience that bound Florence to the New World for ever, transmitting European culture and sophistication into America.