The Judgment of Paris (Primary Title)
Walter McEwen, American, 1860 - 1943 (Artist)
Walter McEwen’s The Judgment of Paris is an iconic example of the work of the expatriate circle of artists active in the Netherlands in the late 19th century. Inspired by the paintings of Frans Hals and other 17th-century Dutch masters, McEwen (also spelled MacEwen) made his first visit to the Netherlands in 1878. Three years later he became among the earliest foreign artists to open a summer studio in the medieval village of Hattem.
Specializing in nostalgic visions of Holland’s preindustrial past, McEwen believed the Dutch scenes reflected aspects of his native country, namely, its cultural values and political system. Such works were popular with American viewers who associated the Netherlands with their proud colonial heritage.
Chicago, World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893
Washington, D.C., Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, The Hague School and Its American Legacy, April 19-June 11, 1982; traveled to Norton Gallery and School of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, July 9-August 15, 1982
Washington, D.C., National Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery, Revisiting the White City: American Art at the 1893 World’s Fair, April 16-August 15, 1993
Giselle D’Unger, “The Chicago Beautiful—Women and Art: the Vital Forces,” Fine Arts Journal 30 (June 1914), 296-312, 300 ill.
Handbook of Paintings and Drawings, vol. 2 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1920), no. 170
Mary Ann Goley, The Hague School and Its American Legacy, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1982), 16, ill.
Mike Melton, “Important Work of Art Hangs in Historic Old College Building at TWC,” Daily Post-Athenian, Athens, Tennessee (August 11, 1992)
Carolyn Kinder Carr, Revisiting the White City: American Art at the 1893 World’s Fair, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery, 1993), 171, 285, ill.
Annette Stott, ed., Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880-1914, exh. cat. (Savannah, GA: Telfair Museum of Art in assoc. with the Singer Laren Museum, the Netherlands, 2009), 66-67, ill
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