JACKSONVILLE, FLA.- The newest exhibition at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Mediterranea: American Art from the Graham D. Williford Collection, on view August 8, 2017 through February 4, 2017, featuring paintings and works on paper by George Peter Alexander Healy (1813 – 1894), William Merritt Chase (1894 – 1916), Frank Duveneck (1894 – 1919), and Theodore Robinson (1852 – 1896).

This exhibition looks at how American artists of the late 19th and early 20th century captured the diversity and distinctiveness of certain places that make up the Mediterranean region such as Italy, Spain, the Middle East, and North Africa. Artists drew on the richness of the flora, the brilliance of the sea, and the grand architecture to create beautiful landscapes and genre scenes.

Nelda Damiano, Associate Curator at the Museum, says, “When looking at the works [in this exhibition], I think of how artists must have been captivated, if not shocked, by the dramatic Mediterranean light, how that light reflected on the surface of the sea, onto open fields, and buildings, and how they would have tried to convey it.”

The Museum is continuing its series of exhibitions that look at the “artist abroad”. In the vein of Academic Splendor, Heroes & Battlefields, An American in Venice, and Poetry of Landscape, Mediterranea presents American artists who traveled to perfect their training and embrace different cultures.

For more than 50 years, the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens has been committed to engaging and inspiring through the arts, gardens, and education. A permanent collection of more than 5,000 objects and historic gardens on a riverfront campus offers more than 165,000 annual visitors a truly unique experience on the First Coast.