The Ten
A group of
American painters formed in 1897 for the purpose of exhibiting
independently of the Society of American Artists and The National
Academy of Design, the prevailing fine arts organizations at the
time.
Members of the Ten were John Twatchman, J. Alden
Weir, Childe Hassam, F.W.Benson, Joseph De Camp, Thomas Dewing,
Willard Leroy Metcalf, Robert Reid, E.E. Simmons, and Edmund Tarbell,
to be joined later by William Merritt Chase.
The Ten felt their work better suited to a more intimate
installation and were instrumental in influencing the way art is
exhibited today. The group did not award prizes, for example, and
their shows inspired quiet contemplation in a setting where even the
walls were painted in complementary colors to harmonize with their
mostly impressionistic work.
Dubbed 'Ten American Painters' by the press, the group exhibited
together from 1898 to 1918 in New York, and occasionally in other
American cities.
Representative
painters:
Benson, Chase, Dewing,
Hassam, Metcalf, Reid, Tarbell, Twachtman, J.A. Weir