WINSTON-SALEM, NC.- An exhibition of American Impressionism which opened Saturday, Oct. 3 at Reynolda House Museum of American Art has just been named one of the 28 best exhibitions around the world. “The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887-1920” was included among an elite group of exhibitions as a finalist for the Global Fine Art Awards announced by the awards organization Oct. 1.

American Impressionism and the popularity of gardening as a leisure activity is the focus of "The Artist's Garden." Reynolda House is the third of only five venues nationwide to host the exhibition, which will be on view at the North Carolina museum through Jan. 3, 2016. This national exhibition, featuring what Philadelphia Magazine called “the best of the genre,” includes the work of the American Impressionist artists William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, Cecilia Beaux, Maria Oakey Dewing, Frederick Carl Frieseke, John Twachtman, and J. Alden Weir.

“These artists were responsible for revolutionizing art in America by bringing Impressionism from France to America for the first time,” said Allison Slaby, Reynolda House curator. “They fell in love with the freshness, light, and color of French Impressionism and found that gardens, whether in Europe or America, were the perfect places to experiment with this new style.”

“The Artist’s Garden” is organized by themes that include American artists’ visits to European gardens, the enthusiasm for gardening among women, the urban garden, the artist’s garden, and the garden in winter. The exhibition and its accompanying catalog include representations of gardens across the United States and Europe.

“These are iconic images of American Impressionist painting,” Slaby added.

“This is a perfect exhibition for Reynolda to host, and one that visitors across the Southeast are going to absolutely love,” says Allison Perkins, executive director of the museum and Wake Forest University’s associate provost for Reynolda House and Reynolda Gardens. “Katharine Reynolds subscribed to a number of influential periodicals that helped spread information about gardening, including Country Life in America and Garden magazine. Her creation of the Reynolda estate, alongside Philadelphians Charles Barton Keen and Thomas Sears, is a beautiful reflection of the American Garden Movement.”

Reynolda House opened a complementary exhibition, “Reynolda at 100: Reynolda Gardens,” Sept. 5. The small exhibition on view in one of the museum’s historic house galleries shows the role the gardens played in Katharine Reynolds’s ambitious vision for a New South and how it continues its historic mission of education and public access today. Wake Forest University recently announced the re-unification of management of Reynolda House and Reynolda Gardens by naming Perkins associate provost over both historic properties.