Impressionism and Modernism are two art movements that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Each considered to be radical in their own time, they were departures from traditional forms of art that embraced realism and classical forms. Impressionist painters use brushstrokes instead of hard lines to capture the transient effects of reflective light on an object. Modernist painters experiment with shape and color, using forms that are more symbolic than realistic. 

A leading artist featured in Summer Palettes is American Impressionist artist Lilla Cabot Perry, born in 1848 in Boston, Massachusetts where she was a founder of the Guild of Boston Artists. Perry lived next door to Claude Monet in Giverny, France for ten years, and her work was influenced by his Impressionist style. She was instrumental in promoting Impressionism and introducing Claude Monet to art audiences in the United States. In her later years, Perry resided and painted in Hancock, New Hampshire, where she continued to work until she died in 1933 at the age of eighty-six. The Monadnock region celebrates Lilla Cabot Perry as part of a long-standing tradition of artists who were — and still are — drawn to the area to paint, sculpt, write and compose.

      Also featured in Summer Palettes are father-and-son artists Emil Carlsen (1848-1932) and Dines Carlsen (1901-1966). Danish-born artist Emil Carlsen studied architecture at the Danish Royal Academy before emigrating to Chicago at age 19. He later traveled to Europe to study the Old Masters, returning to Chicago where he taught at the Chicago Art Institute. Carlsen perceived art as pure aesthetics with its only language being color, masses, and rhythms of line. Dines Carlsen, Emil’s son, was born in New York and studied with his father. At age fifteen he exhibited at the National Academy of Design and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. He was a member of the National Academy of Design and the Grand Central Art Galleries, and had homes in Falls Village, Connecticut and Summerville, South Carolina. Dines Carlsen became well known for not only his still-life paintings but also his landscapes.