Reflections: Paintings of Florida 1865–1965 - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Charles Christian Eisele, Evening on the Suwannee River, 1885, Collection of Cici and Hyatt Brown

Reflections: Paintings of Florida 1865–1965,
From the collection of Cici and Hyatt Brown at the Museum of Florida History

The Museum of Florida History is excited to host the special exhibition Reflections: Paintings of Florida 1865–1965, From the collection of Cici and Hyatt Brown. The exhibit opens November 16, 2012, and closes May 6, 2013. The Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach organized the exhibit.
This exhibit features eighty-five works of art that highlight Florida's unique and beautiful landscape. The paintings were created by many of the most influential artists who have painted Florida’s natural environment and famous landmarks in the past 150 years. Among the notable artists whose work is in this exhibition are Martin Johnson Heade, Herman Herzog, Laura Woodward, N. C. Wyeth, George Inness, Jr., and A. E. Backus.

Former Curator of The Morris Museum of Art Jay Williams notes, "While beautifully expressing the uniqueness of Florida, 'Reflections' transcends the usual limitations of regional art because of its extraordinary quality and the importance of art in shaping Florida's image."

Reflections: Paintings of Florida 1865–1965, From the collection of Cici and Hyatt Brown by Gary R. Libby, the exhibition catalogue, is available for purchase in Florida’s History Shop. Plan now to view these extraordinary paintings.

Museum of Florida History website found here

I was in Tallahassee this week for a meeting of the Florida Council on Arts and Culture (more on that later) and made sure to visit this incredible exhibition.  One of the most important collections of Florida Art the Brown collection has paintings from every major landscape painter that visited our State between 1865 - 1965.  I was blown away at the selections in the show and encourage everyone to seek out this traveling exhibition.  Like the famous Vickers collection before it the Browns have amassed a world class collection that depicts our State before all the development.  Many of the important northern landscape painters at the turn of the last century came down to Florida for health or adventure reasons and while they were here they painted the wild landscapes they encountered. Wyeth, Homer, Heade, Herzog and many others painted here.  I was encouraged that the collection even included A. E. Backus, showing that the native Floridian belongs in the same conversation as the other important American landscape artists.  Back in the early 90's these Florida paintings began showing up in the American paintings auctions in New York.  Because the subjects were Florida and not the Huston Valley or other more know Northern views the paintings were often sold at a 1/3 of the price of what the northern paintings commanded.  Astute collectors like the Browns and Vickers snatched them up knowing their true value to our State.  We thank them for their dedication, for preserving and most importantly sharing the works with us.  Our State is rich with history and these paintings are an important part of telling that story to generations to come.  GL