"American and French Impressionism" will open at the Wiscasset Bay Gallery on Thursday, July 7 with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served.

Among the important American works on display is Chauncey Foster Ryder's (1865-1949) "Clouds Over the Valley" depicting a figure with a pair of oxen hauling logs in the foreground against a soft, feathery sky and rolling landscape. Ryder's paintings are in many major museums including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Echoing Ryder's subtle palette and painterly brushstrokes, is a view of Washington Square Park by New York impressionist Bela de Tirefort (1894-1933). The artist's use of grays, blues and whites captures the Greenwich Village icon on a snowy winter's day with figures sheltered under umbrellas.

French Impressionists works featured in the show include a richly toned etching and aquatint by Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), titled "Tete de Jeune Fille." The sitter is a young girl named Claudine, etched in 1873, with a wistful, innocent expression on her face. Many views of the streets of Paris in spring and fall abound in the exhibition including a dynamic work by Francois Gerome (b. 1895) of Porte Sainte-Denis with horses and carriages traversing the boulevards as twilight approaches. Other French Impressionists on view include Carolus-Duran (1837-1917), Jean Salabet (French, b. 1900), Jean-Auguste Vyboud (1872-1944), Pauline Grandjean (fl. 1920s) and Georges Rouault (1871-1958).