Coming of Age

Thomas Eakins, the great 19th-century American painter, instructed American artists to free themselves of a 'superficial view of the Old World'. This exhibition tells the story of how they managed to do just that, with collections drawn from the Addison Gallery of American Art in Boston.

There are paintings by some well-known names, including John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler, both of whom trained in Paris. But they are not as we know them. Sargent's Val d'Aosta: A Man Fishing (1907) is a sun-dappled Impressionistic scene, so unlike the seductive fin de siècle portraits with which he wowed European audiences. Meanwhile, the sombre dawn of Whistler's Brown And Silver: Old Battersea Bridge (1863, pictured) has none of the firework effects of his later paintings.

Paris is, unsurprisingly, evident everywhere, even in unexpected places. Georgia O'Keeffe's Wave, Night (1928), a dreamy, semi-abstract seascape, could, for instance, be an unfinished painting by Henri Rousseau, one in which the foreground has yet to be painted in. But even before you encounter the triumph of abstract expressionism, you'll see a shift: in Stuart Davis's Red Cart (1932) one immediately thinks of the British artist Patrick Caulfield's Pop Art canvases.

The story of American art's coming of age is a familiar one, but here you'll encounter some delightful unexpected twists.

Until Jun 8, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road SE21, Tue to Fri 10am to 5pm, Sat and Sun 11am to 5pm, £9, free to £8 concs. Tel: 020 8693 5254. Rail: West Dulwich

Coming Of Age: American Art 1850s To 1950s
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Gallery Road, SE21 7AD