Americans in Florence. Sargent and the American Impressionists on view at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, from 3 March to 15 July 2012, sets out to illustrate the extremely fertile and multifaceted relationship that the painters of the New World established with Florence and other cities in Tuscany between the mid 19th century and the World War .

After the end of the American Civil War, there was a substantial increase in the number of American artists travelling to Europe, although, of course, the 18th century Grand Tour tradition had never really died.

The painters' main destinations were Florence, Venice and Rome, cities which the artists idolised in their eagerness to explore their ancient monuments and to take their own measure against the art of the past. They were also attracted by the charm and variety of the landscape, so different from the countryside back home, by the light, by the evocative and atmospheric panoramic views, and by the picturesque charm of the local people.

The exhibition is divided into five sections with works by over thirty Americans artists who worked in Florence. Some, like lohn Singer Sargent, are famous, while the work of other less well-known artists is being shown in Italy for the first time. On returning home, they all became celebrated painters and authoritative masters who played a crucial role in forming the new generation of American painters and in forging the birth of a national school of painting.

Their paintings diaiogue in the sections of the exhibition with those by Florentine and Tuscan painters including Telemaco Signorini, Vittorio Corcos and Michele Gordigiani, whose work came closest to the sophisticated manner, so rich in literary allusions, that was favoured and nurtured by the most exclusive circles in that cosmopolitan colony.

Americans in Florence. Sargent and the American Impressionists

3 March 2012 to 15 July 2012

Palazzo Strozzi, Piazza Strozzi, 50123 Florence, Italy

Tel. +390552645155, www.palazzostrozzi.org

Opening hours: Daily 9 am to 8 pm, Thursday 9 am to 11 pm Last admission to the exhibition one hour before closing

Admission: Adult: €1O.00; concessions: €8.50, €8.00, €7.50, €5.00; schools: €4.00

Booking: Sigma CSC, Tel. +39 0552469600, Fax. +39 055244 145

prenotazioni@cscsigma.it or via www.palazzostrozzi.org