NOMA | New Orleans Museum of Art

In the early 20th century, Louisiana artists continued to define the character of the South and develop a Southern aesthetic. Earlier generations of artists, believing the South was isolated and unique, retreated to romanticism and nostalgia. Later generations, however, welcomed the inevitable changes of modern forces. Establishing contact with other regions, these artists explored the issue of a Southern aesthetic in a larger, less provincial context.

Many Louisiana artists continued to favor landscape painting but no one genre dominated. Indeed, creative options were expanded by the establishment in 1890 of the Newcomb College School of Art. Its pottery and crafts enterprise intended to provide employment for women at a time when they had few opportunities in the commercial world.

The most influential figures in Southern art at this time were the Woodward brothers, William and Ellsworth. Although born in Massachusetts, the Woodward brothers made New Orleans their home and devoted themselves to promoting Southern culture and art – as artists, teachers and administrators. Ellsworth Woodward was the first Dean of the Newcomb School of Art and a founding trustee of the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art [now NOMA].

During this period, Southern artists practiced a variety of styles ranging from the most conservative to the most experimental. The landscapes that remained popular illustrate the American version of Impressionism. William Woodward’s paintings embody this so-called “genteel” Impressionism which retains the exuberant brushwork and vibrant colors of French Impressionism, but is tamer and more low-keyed with decorative overtones.

International and frequently controversial avant-garde art movements were introduced to New Orleans by the Arts and Crafts Club, founded in 1921. Through the organization, Southern artists were kept abreast of the struggle between representation and abstraction occupying the larger art world. This conflict is manifest in the work of Will Henry Stevens, a professor at Newcomb College, whose paintings may be divided into two distinct categories: representative landscapes bearing the structural influence of Paul Cézanne and color/form abstractions recalling the work of Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.