American Impressionism, photography are focus of new Butler Art Institute exhibits

By SEAN BARRON

news@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

When Hannah Moses conducts tours as a docent for the Butler Institute of American Art, a central focus is always a famous Robert W. Vonnoh painting.

“We talk about color, the landscape itself, and the texture,” said Moses, of Hermitage, Pa., a librarian for the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County. “There’s so much to talk about with children and adults.”

Moses was at the Butler on Sunday, in part to see “In Flanders Field - Where Soldiers Sleep and Poppies Grow,” an oil-on-canvas painting created in 1890 by Vonnoh, widely considered one of the pioneers of American Impressionism.

The Butler, 524 Wick Ave. on the city’s North Side, acquired the work after Joseph G. Butler, the museum’s founder, bought it in 1919. It’s the centerpiece of the “Robert Vonnoh, American Impressionist” exhibition, one of three that premiered Sunday.

The exhibition continues through June 27.

The others are photography exhibits by Michael Cole of Kent, and Peter Ralston, who lives in Maine.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com