American Landscapes in Watercolor from the Corcoran Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington, August 2, 2025–February 1, 2026

American Landscapes in Watercolor from the Corcoran Collection showcases 30 American landscape and nature studies, dating between 1800 and 1991, that demonstrate the versatility and significance of watercolor as a medium and reflect the colorful journey of watercolors across America. Works on view in this presentation are drawn almost entirely from the Corcoran Collection, which has enriched and expanded the National Gallery of Art's collection of American watercolors as part of the ongoing partnership between the institutions.

The earliest watercolor painters arrived in the United States with European settlers in the late 16th century. Over the next 200 years, the medium was used primarily by commercial and amateur artists. Printmakers and explorers found watercolors to be an inexpensive and portable material apt for mapping and documenting the landscape. Works by these itinerant artists on view include William Russell Birch's explorations of the dense eastern forests in the first decade of the 19th century; Seth Eastman's studies of West Point from the mid-1830s; and Walter Paris's view of David Burns's cottage on the National Mall.

In the late 19th century, painters turned to watercolors to depict the country in larger and more carefully finished works. After the American Watercolor Society was founded in 1867, watercolors came to be seen as an independent fine art. Winslow Homer, William Trost Richards, and other artists exploited the medium's potential to produce finished works worthy of collecting and putting on public display. On view in this presentation are John William Hill's delicate painting The Waterfall (1860s–1870s) and William Trost Richards's powerful South-West Point, Conanicut (1878/1879). The latter, a recent gift to the National Gallery, will be presented alongside two ocean studies by Richards from the Corcoran Collection. In the 20th century, artists appreciated the spontaneous and luminous qualities of watercolor in their expressive and abstract landscapes, such as Alma Thomas's gestural Winter Shadows (c. 1960) and Donald Holden's intense atmospheric Yellowstone Fire XIX (1991).

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

The exhibition is curated by Amy Johnston, associate curator of collections, department of old master drawings, National Gallery of Art.