Welcome to the William A. Karges Fine Art Blog

Welcome to the William A. Karges Fine Art Blog, where you'll be able to learn about Early California and Southwest Paintings and discover information about Museum Exhibitions, Current News, Events, and our gallery's new acquisitions of original paintings created between 1870 and 1940 by a wide variety of artists. We'll feature biographies, photographs, links to websites of interest to collectors, video tours, and detailed histories of some of California's most influential and intriguing artists. Visit our Gallery at Dolores & Sixth Ave in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California to view our collection of fine paintings in person.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Three Important Exhibits on Display at the Crocker Art Museum

The Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento currently has three outstanding exhibitions of early California and American paintings on display.  The museum, which unveiled a new 125,000 square foot addition in October of 2010, also has a strong permanent collection of Early California art.  The exhibitions currently open to the public also include works from the Brooklyn Museum and the Bank of America Collection.

The first exhibit, which opened on May 14th, 2011, is titled “Transcending Vision: American Impressionism, 1870-1940”.  This collection of paintings by American Artists who were influenced by the French Impressionist movement features 125 works by a diverse group.  Paintings by notable and influential American artists George Inness and George Bellows are included in the exhibition, which ends on September 25th, 2011.

Another exhibition of interest to admirers of Early American art is “Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism”,  which opened to the public on June 11th, and runs through September 18th.  This display includes approximately 40 landscape paintings from the Brooklyn Museum.  Both French and American artists are represented in a group of works from the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth-century.   Works by John Singer Sargent and Childe Hassam are prominently featured.

The third show currently on display at the Crocker is titled “Gardens and Grandeur: Porcelains andPaintings by Franz A. Bischoff”.  The collection went on view June 25th, and the exhibition continues through October 23rd, 2011.  The exhibit chronicles the history and career of the “King of the Rose Painters”, and features approximately 40 examples of this artist’s work. 


Remembered primarily for his floral still lifes, Franz Bischoff was one of the finest early California Impressionists, and an outstanding colorist.  For additional information about this important Southern California artist, see our Blog entry which was posted last December.

For additional information about the Crocker Museum, including operating hours and directions, please visit their website at www.crockerartmuseum.org