"It sounds like a paradox, but it is a very simple truth that when to-day we look for 'American art' we find it mainly in Paris. When we find it out of Paris, we at least find a great deal of Paris in it."
-Henry James, 1887
To American collectors, Knight's beautifully rendered painting of French peasant girls demonstrated that America had arrived culturally.
The American wealthy class that emerged from the Civil War emulated European tastes. Attempting to prove that Americans could compete culturally with Europe, artists felt compelled to learn French styles. Knight mastered the French academic style and won many accolades in the French salons for his peasant paintings. "Le premier chagrin" was accepted into the 1892 Salon and was honored as one of the few works to be illustrated in the catalog. Knight's idealized peasant girls inhabit a picturesque landscape untouched by urbanization. Sentimental peasants like these were one of the most popular subjects in the French salons.
From: BYU MOA, "American Dreams" Exhibition, 9/1/05 - 9/1/10
Credit Line:
Brigham Young Unviersity Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Jack R. and Mary Lois Wheatley.
College of Fine Arts and Communications
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