During the late nineteenth century, American artists keenly felt their peripheral and provincial status in the capitals of Europe.听 Yet they were welcomed with unusual enthusiasm by the internationalist Cercle des XX in Brussels, as well as by Belgian art critics.听 This talk will examine the Anglo-American participation in the early Salons of Les XX (1884-88), focusing on the reception of James Whistler, John Sargent, and William M. Chase.听 It will consider the historical and social ties between the United States and Belgium, which included a similar questioning of national identity vis-脿-vis the dominant French art world.听 In the end, the unexpected success of the Americans in Brussels provoked a nationalist dispute within the ranks of Les XX, which will be explored through the correspondence of artists James Ensor, Willy Finch, and Th茅o Van Rysselberghe, among others.
John Davis is Executive Director for Europe and Global Academic Programs at the Terra Foundation for American Art. He is on secondment from Smith College where he is Alice Pratt Brown Professor of Art. He is the author or co-author of six books and museum catalogues, as well as several dozen articles and essays. His most recent books are听American Art to 1900: A Documentary History听(2009, co-authored with Sarah Burns), and the co-edited听Blackwell Companion to American Art听(2015). An essay on William Merritt Chase鈥檚 international exhibition strategies has recently appeared in the catalogue听William Merritt Chase: A Modern Master, for the Chase retrospective organized by the Phillips Collection and the MFA, Boston.