One of the first American artists to bring French Impressionism home to develop on native soil, Theodore Wendel is likely the last to have a monograph that records his remarkable career and stunning oeuvre. His portraits and still lifes, and especially his landscapes, not only exemplify the joyous palette and vigorous brushwork of the genre, but they also mirror the idyllic, transient beauty of rural hamlets along the Massachusetts coast—Gloucester and Ipswich, the dual epicenters of his distinguished career.
One of the original “Duveneck boys” who studied in Munich at the Royal Academy, Wendel followed his mentor to Florence and Venice; he later went on to Paris and ultimately joined a colony of young artists at Giverny. The scenes and subject matter in the works he completed there are among the earliest by an American artist to adopt and evolve Impressionist strategies. Upon his return to America, he spent the next decades rendering scenes of the farmland and coast north of Boston that contemporary critics acclaimed as some of the best they had seen. Yet despite his talent and the significant accolades earned during his career, in the near-century following his death the recognition of his achievements has faded. The Artist Book Foundation is delighted to have the opportunity to remedy this situation with its forthcoming monograph on the artist, Theodore Wendel: True Notes of American Impressionism.
Laurene Buckley’s years of exhaustive research inform an engaging and detailed narrative of Wendel’s time in Europe and his many years capturing the essence of the farms and fishing villages along the rural coast of Massachusetts. Thanks to her efforts, the book will feature many of his best works, a number of which are in private collections. An informative introduction by William H. Gerdts provides significant artistic context for Wendel and explains the artist’s deft ability to draw the viewer into a scene. Concluding the monograph, an extensive chronology, exhibition history, and bibliography complete the scholarship on this long overdue tribute to a master of American Impressionism.

Laurene Buckley earned her PhD in art history at the Graduate Center of City University and her MA in museum studies at City College, both in New York City. She has been executive director or curator at numerous institutions, including the New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut; the Queens Museum, New York City; the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, Lewiston, New York; and, most recently, the new Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She is also a consultant for the American Alliance of Museums. William H. Gerdts, professor emeritus of Art History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, is an acclaimed American art historian and the author of over 25 books on American art. An expert in American Impressionism, he is especially well known for his work on nineteenth-century American still life painting.

Preface 11 | Laurene Buckley
Light and Color in Northeastern Massachusetts 15 | William H. Gerdts
Chapter 1: The Early Years 19
Chapter 2: Study and Travel Abroad 23
Chapter 3: Cincinnati and Newport 29
Chapter 4: Paris and Giverny 35
Chapter 5: Boston and Gloucester 45
Chapter 6: Honeymoon Abroad 57
Chapter 7: Ipswich Village and Ties to Boston and Gloucester 63
Chapter 8: Lower Farm, Ipswich 77
Chapter 9: Upper Farm, Ipswich 83
Chapter 10: A Rare Spirit 91
Plates 101
Acknowledgments 153
Chronology 155
Awards and Collections 157
Exhibition History 159
Selected Bibliography 165
Index 167
Photography Credits 171
Copyright page 171

Wendel opted for quiet and harmonious townscapes, and when indulging in pure landscapes, utilized Impressionist strategies to depict flowering trees ablaze in color and sparkle, or contrasted filigreed blossoming with sharp, geometric buildings. His art reflects the pleasures of small-town New England life, the merging of natural and manmade, and by utilizing the then-Modernist strategies he had absorbed, he successfully communicated these to his viewers. . . . Gloucester and Ipswich locales offered the artist infinite opportunities to fill his landscapes with the virtuoso brushwork and brilliant hues he had captured in the French countryside. New subjects led to new experiments in compositions, but the “baptism” gleaned from original sources of the Impressionist style truly made Theodore Wendel one of the more successful Americans who brought Impressionism home.