The fascinating history of the Telfair, featuring 114 representative pieces of fine and decorative art from its vast collection, all superbly reproduced and thoroughly annotated.

Telfair Museum of Art: Collection Highlights

Arts & Photography

Telfair Museum of Art

History & Criticism

A guide to the unique collection of Telfair's paintings, drawings, and prints donated by twenty-two artists who either were friends with or were admired by the renowned curator and Savannah native Kirk Varnedoe (1946-2003). Each piece is reproduced alongside a remembrance of Varnedoe by the artist.

The Kirk Varnedoe Collection: With Artist's Statements, Excerpted from Interviews

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Showcasing more than seventy paintings from public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe, Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880-1914 explores the work of forty-three American artists drawn to Holland during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Escaping from the rapid urbanization of their time, these artists established colonies in six communities in the Netherlands―Dordrecht, Egmond, Katwijk, Laren, Rijsoord, and Volendam―with all but Dordrecht being small, preindustrial villages. Inspired by their pastoral surroundings as well as the great traditions of seventeenth-century Dutch art and the contemporary Hague school, these American artists created visions of Dutch society underpinned by a nostalgic yearning for a premodern way of life. Some even alluded to America’s own colonial Dutch heritage, exploring shared histories and cultural connections between the two countries.
Organized by the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia, Dutch Utopia examines the appeal of Holland for American artists during this period, through six pivotal themes: the influence of seventeenth-century Dutch painting; the impact of the contemporary Hague School; antimodernism and the American Progressive Movement; points of convergence in national identities; the proliferation of artist colonies in Holland; and the popular construction of “Dutchness” beyond the stereotypes of wooden shoes and windmills. Dutch Utopia includes works by artists who remain celebrated today, such as Robert Henri, William Merritt Chase, and John Singer Sargent, and by painters admired in their own time but less well-known now. These include accomplished women such as Elizabeth Nourse and Anna Stanley, as well as George Hitchcock, Gari Melchers, and Walter MacEwen, who built international reputations with Salon pictures of Dutch landscapes and costumed figures. These artists were among hundreds of Americans who traveled to the Netherlands between 1880 and 1914 to paint and to study. Some lived in Holland for decades, while others stayed only a week or two, but most passed quickly through the major cities to small rural communities, where they created picturesque idylls on canvas.

Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880-1914

Spanish Sojourns: Robert Henri and the Spirit of Spain is the catalogue of the first exhibition to explore the Spanish paintings of Robert Henri (1865-1929). Including more than forty full-color plates of the paintings inspired by Henri’s seven journeys to Spain, Spanish Sojourns provides a thorough examination of Henri’s lengthy engagement with that country’s people, art, and culture. The catalog’s three in-depth essays also contain a wealth of comparative images: paintings, drawings, photographs, and documents. Written by Valerie Ann Leeds, a noted Henri scholar; M. Elizabeth Boone, an authority on Spanish art; and Holly Koons McCullough, a longtime curator at Telfair Museums, the essays discuss Henri’s Spanish paintings in a variety of contexts—artistic, cultural, and historical—laying the groundwork for readers’ full understanding and appreciation of this major body of work by one of the most influential American artists of the early twentieth century. Spain and its people held particular fascination for Henri, who was attracted to the nation’s sunny climate, ancient culture, and spirited citizens. He first visited Spain in 1900, and returned six times between 1906 and 1926, often for extended stays. He produced some of his boldest and most compelling likenesses there, portraying a wide range of bohemian cultural figures including singers, dancers, musicians, bullfighters, gypsies and peasants. Henri’s Spanish paintings also reflect his admiration for the great Spanish masters Diego Velázquez and Francisco Goya, whose works he studied closely during his many visits to Madrid’s Prado Museum. EXHIBITION SCHEDULE<ul>
<li>Telfair Museums Savannah, Georgia October 18, 2013–May 4, 2014</li> <li>San Diego Museum of Art California May 30–September 7, 2014</li> <li>Mississippi Museum of Art Jackson, Mississippi September 26, 2014–January 4, 2015</li>
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Spanish Sojourns: Robert Henri and the Spirit of Spain

Individual Artists

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Telfair Museum of Art. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Telfair Museum of Art

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Telfair Museum of Art. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Telfair Museum of Art: Collection Highlights

The Kirk Varnedoe Collection: With Artist's Statements, Excerpted from Interviews

Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880-1914

Spanish Sojourns: Robert Henri and the Spirit of Spain