Detail from John Singer Sargent, 'Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)', 1883-4. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1916, photo 1997.

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22 February - 21 May 2006
Sainsbury Wing Admission charge

Paris was the centre of the art world in the 19th century, and a magnet for American art students and artists, eager to experience the cosmopolitan delights of the city and to steep themselves in its artistic atmosphere.

For the first time in Britain, this exhibition looked at why American artists were drawn to Paris, what they produced there, and how their art changed.

The exhibition included well-known artists - James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt - and others who will largely be unknown to audiences here, including Cecilia Beaux, Elizabeth Nourse and Theodore Robinson.

Highlights included Whistler's 'White Girl' from the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Sargent's astonishing painting of the daughters of Edward Darley Boit, from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and his notorious 'Madame X' from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

'Americans in Paris 1860 - 1900' was organised by the National Gallery, London and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

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