Next, classic paintings from a whole new angle.

Discover the immersive sculptures of Seward Johnson.

- So this is based on a painting by Monet, - if I'm not mistaken.

- Very explicitly, The Terrace at Sainte Adresse.

Experience the art, as well as the history captured by these spectacular works, and see how they paint a picture of the past.

Also, history put to the test in an all new Drive By History Quiz.

Anthony has the questions.

Will you have the answers?

Drive By History starts now.

[Music] Made possible by: the New Jersey Historic Trust, advancing historic preservation in New Jersey for the benefit of future generations.

Also, the New Jersey Historical Commission, enriching the lives of the public by preserving the historical record and advancing interest in and awareness of New Jersey's past.

Every day, thousands of motorists pass by countless history markers and say to themselves, One of these days Im going to stop and read that.

One of these days Im going to find out what happened and why it mattered.

Well, this is that day.

I'm heading to a marker that reminds me how important art is to history.

Of course, artists illustrate history, but sometimes they make history, too.

I'm Ken Magos, and this is Drive By History.

Today's investigation takes me to the city of Philadelphia.

With such a deep and rich past, it's no surprise that Philadelphia has more than 300 markers spread across the city, and suggestions for additional markers are considered every year, so that number is likely to keep going up.

Here's the history marker that I'm looking for today.

It stands near the intersection of Arch and Broad Streets.

But it also stands at the intersection of art and history.

Let's see what it says.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Americas oldest art museum and school, founded 1805 by Peale, Rush, and other artists.

Trained here were Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, Maxfield Parrish, John Marron, Charles Demuth and others.

Furness and Hewitt designed the neo-Gothic building 1876.

Clearly, there are a lot of great artists that are named here, but I'm going to ask Anthony to choose only one.

And in the process, I'm sure well uncover a fascinating history.

Let's go.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

What's the story that Anthony will uncover here?

To find out more, I'm off to the Guggenheim Library housed in this mansion, the former summer estate of Murry and Leonie Guggenheim, located on the campus of Monmouth University, where Drive By History's Anthony Bernard has been hard at work looking at all the angles, attempting to paint a picture of the past.

- So you got my message right?

- Yeah.

- So you know I just came from a history marker - that talks about the Pennsylvania - Academy of Fine Arts, - and it lists a slew of famous painters who all trained there.

- Now we can't talk about all of them.

- There just isn't enough time.

- But I thought we'd zero in on just one, - and I'd leave it up to you to choose who that would be.

- Who did you select?

- Thank you, Ken.

- Now let's look at that sign again, shall we?

- Here are the nominees: Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, - Maxfield Parrish, John Marin, - Charles Demuth and others.

- I made my decision.

- Yes?

- Drumroll, please.

- I selected... - Yes?

- Mary Cassatt.

- Mary Cassatt!

- Mary Cassatt.

- And I'll explain why in just a moment.

- But first, in my research, I found another - Mary Cassatt history marker.

- This one in Pittsburgh, - And in the spirit of our show I thought I would read it.

- It says Mary Cassatt.

Born near here, Cassatt - studied art in Europe.

- She lived in Paris, befriended - by the impressionist painter Degas.

- She was an innovative painter, print maker and etcher, - and is noted for her works depicting women and children.

- She was quite accomplished.

- She was.

- Cassatt was the only American artist to exhibit - with the Impressionists in Paris.

- And as my sign says, she was born near Pittsburgh.

- So how did she end up in France?

- So, she began studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia at the age of 15.

- Noted in my sign.

- When she was 22, she moved to Paris to study privately - to learn art at the epicenter of the art scene.

- Now, this is the mid-1860s, and the French art scene was in - the midst of a radical change - in part due to advances in photography.

- Ah, so you don't need portraitists, do you?

- Not as many, anyway.

- Broadly, life was changing in Europe, - and people like Edouard Manet - believed that art should change with it.

- And it's because of that belief - that we have impressionism today.

- So how does Mary Cassatt fit into the picture?

- Good one, Ken.

Mary Cassatt took a liking to the new style and showed with the Impressionists, - which was a watershed moment in her career.

- And, according to my research, in the history of art.

- You're looking at some of Cassatts works - from that exhibition.

- I appreciate art but I have to admit I have an untrained eye.

- So what makes this art significant?

- What does your research tell you?

- Mary Cassatt, and all of the Impressionists, - shun those very detailed, very realistic portrayals - of the world that were popular at the time.

- Think...Asher Durand.

- Yeah, I remember from a previous investigation - he painted with incredible detail.

- This is the opposite.

- Cassatt and the others painted impressions of their surroundings.

- Mary Cassatt was particularly good - at using the brush to portray feeling and emotion.

- And Mary Cassatt was a French Impressionist.

- She was...quite an accomplishment for an - American born woman, wouldt you say?

- Yeah.

- Cassatt received a Legion of Honor award from France - in 1904 for her contribution to French art.

- In fact, she became a role model for women who - wanted to become artists both here and abroad.

- That's extraordinary.

- Now, it's worth noting that Mary Cassatts name - isn't as familiar today as some of her well-known peers, - but she's every bit as important.

- And I'm happy to tell you that theres a movement - underway in France to elevate her, - to give her the recognition that she deserves.

- And that's why I chose her as the starting point - for this investigation.

- Starting point... - That's where this next investigation begins.

[Music] To find out more, Anthony sends me to Hamilton Township, New Jersey, to the Grounds for Sculpture, a 42-acre park and museum.

I'm greeted by Professor Susan Sidlauskas, the Chair of the Department of Art History at Rutgers, as well as Gary Schneider, the Executive Director at Grounds for Sculpture.

Gary tells me one of the most popular sections of the park is focused on French Impressionism, as interpreted by sculptor Seward Johnson.

- Yeah, he has an entire series and we have number of works - here at the park called Beyond the Frame, - and it's a series where he created impressionist, - or recreated impressionist paintings in three dimensions.

Seward Johnson's work looks at impressionist art from a whole new angle, literally.

He's taken some of the best known paintings from the Impressionist period and given them depth that only ever existed before in the imagination.

The sculptures are stunning, and we'll explore some in detail in just a moment.

But before we do, a little more about Seward Johnson.

He was the grandson of Robert Wood Johnson, the co-founder of Johnson and Johnson, and he used some of his fortune to transform the former site of the New Jersey State Fairgrounds into this wonderland of fine art.

- I think part of Mr. Johnson's vision - for his own artwork in the park was to take artwork - off the wall, off the pedestal and put it out in nature, - where you can experience it in a very visceral way.

Gary and Susan begin my private tour at an installation called Viral Art.

Here, I discover the likeness of Seward Johnson, painting (symbolically) alongside other great artists.

- And Susan, I'm looking at Manet painting Monet - sitting out in the boat, if I'm not mistaken.

- Exactly, Exactly.

Essentially, Johnson is taking us back to the beginning of Impressionism, to the time Anthony was telling me about in the library when Edouard Manet was among the first painters of his time to turn his back on a style known as realism, and embrace an entirely new way of thinking about and making art.

- People call him often the Founder of Impressionism - because he was the first person to make - such a decisive break with the past - in the way he painted and the subjects he chose to paint.

Manet was no stranger to controversy, nor were the other Impressionists.

It seems to me that might be why Seward Johnson was drawn to them.

He appreciated what they were trying to do: redefine the definition of art.

A few steps away, I see a sculpture that illustrates the intersection perfectly.

- Yeah, so not just the figures, but actually the - living landscape, both the ground, the trees, - in many of these settings are designed - to replicate the composition.. - And this is by Manet?

- ...in all the aspects of the painting that you see.

Looking at the Manet on my tablet, I immediately noticed that Seward Johnson's attention to detail is uncanny.

He imagined how the couple appeared from every angle.

- Everything that you see in the sculpture - from a particular vantage point - is truthful to the original painting.

- But anything that is sort of outside that frame or behind, - Seward took liberties.

The Manet painting is titled Argenteuil, which at the time was a small town just outside Paris.

Many artists, including Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir found the locale inspiring, the ideal place to practice something called plein air painting or painting outdoors, a cornerstone of Impressionism.

- This is one of the major innovations - of the Impressionists is to be on site, - look at what you're painting, - form it somehow and put it on canvas.

- It's not going to have a great deal of detail, - but it was going to - sort of conjure up the effect of what the space was like.

The Impressionists often influenced one another.

It seems likely their work at Argenteuil inspired Mary Cassatt who painted this image in the south of France.

- She did some amazing boating paintings, actually.

- She was also very interested in the theme, - and she loved the form of the boat itself.

- She also knew Monet and Manet, - and they respected her a great deal.

- It was very hard to be a woman artist at that point.

As we amble toward the next sculpture, Gary tells me that although it's not currently in rotation, Seward Johnson also created an installation inspired by Mary Cassatts painting, Susan on a Balcony Holding a Dog.

Like the painting, the sculpture is feminine, beautiful, with a hint of melancholy.

As we arrive at our next location, which Seward Johnson called Dejeuner Deja Vu, I find myself surprised and hesitant.

Have I unwittingly entered someplace private?

[Music] - OK, Susan, I feel like weve interrupted a luncheon here.

- I mean, clearly, Gary brought us to this place.

- Not your average luncheon.

- This poor young lady is sitting here with nothing on.

Of course, that feeling of uncertainty and awkwardness is exactly what Seward Johnson wanted.

In fact, he laid out this installation in such a way that as you enter you have to think twice.

- In coming in through the narrow entrance, - which does sort of hold together - that sense of intimacy and privacy violated.

- You need to make that decision: - do you keep going and enter, or not.

- Yes.

With this installation, Seward Johnson is intentionally provoking a reaction, the same reaction that people had in the 19th century when Edouard Manet first showed Le Dejeuner sur lHerbe or the luncheon on the grass.

Although Paris is not known for prudishness at the time, people were shocked.

- Not only is she nude, her clothes are right there, - so there's no ambiguity that this is like a - mythological figure.

- And she has a normal woman's body.

- She's not... - Does it make her too real?

- Yes, yes, yes, too disturbing.

There's another aspect to this painting that stunned 19th century Paris, something that might not be apparent to the 21st century eye.

- Very important is the gaze.

- The fact that she's looking, - shes looking at us looking at her.

- The frankness of her gaze - is one of the things that really disturbed people.

- How can a woman sit here looking at us with eyes up, - not lowered in modesty, but looking right towards us.

- Challenging us to continue looking.

- Yes.

This particular work is now viewed by some as a metaphor.

Like the woman, the painter was rebuffing convention, refusing to do what the mainstream would view as suitable.

- It was the painting that, in certain ways started a movement.

As we head to the next location, again I find myself shocked, this time by the sheer size and scope of the installation, which is unmistakably an homage to a painting most of us know well from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

- So this is based on a painting by Monet, if I'm not mistaken.

- Very explicitly.

Claude Monet was another great impressionist.

In fact, the movement takes its name from one of his works called Impression, Soleil Levant or Impression, Sunrise.

Ironically, the term impressionism was intended negatively.

It was a putdown from an art critic who didn't think the painting was very good.

La Terrasse à Sainte Adresse, known as The Garden at Sainte Adresse, which you see here, was created in 1867.

This painting's artful flatness is among the many hallmarks of this celebrated work.

- There's no illusion about... - about distance, about modeling.

- You don't get a sense that that sea is far away - from the ground, and the fence, which does not retreat - as it should.

- Right.

- Just as it would from the painting.

- Are you suggesting its very - two dimensional, then?

- Yes.

Yes.

Monet did not show this painting for well over a decade, not until 1879 -- it was too daring.

At the time, an educated eye would have found this painting quite experimental, unorthodox even for its rigid geometry.

- It was a radical, radical painting, - I think more radical than he even realized at the time.

The Garden at Sainte Adresse marks yet another milestone, at least for our purposes.

The painting went on display at the same Paris exhibition where America's Mary Cassatt also first showed her Impressionist work.

Arguably, it was a watershed moment in history.

- So that was the moment that she became, - even though she was American, - an American citizen, a French Impressionist.

- Thats how they brought her into the fold.

- It really did.

When Seward Johnson viewed this painting, he must have felt excited and maybe overwhelmed.

Transforming a painting of this scale and complexity into sculpture was a huge undertaking.

- The process is quite painstaking to try to - replicate the scale and amount of space - that's needed to replicate a painting like this.

Not only did Johnson recreate the setting in the foreground, he incorporated an existing lake into the background, and arranged the plantings all around.

That's a massive undertaking.

And while he gave the painting tremendous depth, he also could not ignore its flatness.

- But if you're in the right spot looking into this garden, - it does have that two dimensional feel.

- It does.

- He really did an amazing job with the perspective?

- So this says to me that Seward was not only an artist, - he was a scientist as well, because that's a lot of math.

[laughter] - He had to be.

The next and final stop on my private tour takes me to a private luncheon, but unlike Manets meal, none of us feel any hesitation at this installation titled Were You Invited.

- What's amazing here is that you walk right into it.

- You feel like you actually were invited [laughter].

It seems like Susan Sidlauskas was invited before... she seems to know everyone.

- Eileen, playing with the dog, - the son of the owner of the restaurant - which is called La Fournaise against the railing, - And yeah, and here is the painter Gustav Caillebotte.

Based on Le Déjeuner des Canotiers, known as Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre Auguste Renoir, the 1881 canvas was relatively well-received in its day, suggesting the Impressionist style had started attracting additional enthusiasts.

This Renoir, however, doesn't only reflect the changing character of art, it also reflects the changing character of history.

- These are real people from all different classes.

- They are, they are, and Renoir has gathered them together.

- Hes sort of surprising us with the co-mingling of classes.

- Was he referencing actual cultural changes?

- Absolutely.

Luncheon of the Boating Party must have spoken volumes to Seward Johnson.

Always eager to go beyond the frame.

in this case, he went beyond the table.

- As you go around the back, - there is actually another table at this party.

Of all the likenesses at this luncheon, the one that speaks to me the most is that of Seward Johnson.

He's invited himself to this party.

He's become intertwined with the art.

Of course, in a very literal way, hes our host.

- And what do you think Seward was trying - to tell us with this particular installation?

- Breaking bread and the kind of connection that happens - over a meal was really critical for him - in bringing this painting here, - and bringing it to life for our guests to enter into - the painting and to...to join.

As the day draws to a close, this seems like the perfect place to bid my adieu to this celebration of French Impressionism.

From the imagination of Seward Johnson, we have this fantastic homage.

Fun for the whole family, but also new and unexpected, something the French call avant garde.

It's clear to me Johnson wanted to harness the popular appeal of Impressionism today, while preserving the edgy quality it had in the 19th century.

What we're seeing here at Grounds for Sculpture is an impression of Impressionism.

We see an artist take the work of great Impressionist artists and bring it into the third dimension.

Beyond the frame is a fitting tribute to the many painters who broke with convention and in the process made history, painters such as Pierre Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, and Mary Cassatt, an American artist who was also a great French impressionist.

Only a few minutes left, just enough time for the return of a fan favorite.

- Ken, you usually ask me the questions, - but now its time to turn the tables.

- No, I like it the way it's been [laughter].

- No, we got a little quiz I want you to pass.

- OK, time for the Drive By History Quiz.

- Exactly.

- All right.

- So here's the first one: - in which of the original 13 colonies did George Washington - spend the most amount of time during the American Revolution?

- A.

New Jersey B. Pennsylvania - C. Virginia D. Florida - OK, from our investigations in the past, - what I remember is that he was constantly traversing - between New York and Philadelphia.

- So probably just in the crossing, - he probably would spend the most time in New Jersey.

- I'm going to go with New Jersey.

- Yep, the correct answer is A.

- According to the National Park Service, Washington - and his troops spent more days in New Jersey - than any place else, with nearly 300 significant - military engagements taking place in New Jersey - between 1775 and 1783.

- Next question: which of the following - is not an event connected to the Battle of Princeton?

- A.

The British mistakenly thought they had - slain George Washington.

- B.

Secret agents deliberately passed along inaccurate details - to the British.

- C. Ben Franklin led a brigade - from Philadelphia to help clinch the Battle.

- D. Damage from the battle is still visible on the campus - of Princeton University.

- I have to say, - Ben Franklin has figured prominently in a number of - our investigations in the past, - none of which ever had him leading a brigade.

- So I'm going to go with C is the one that's not true.

- The correct answer is C. - At the time, Ben Franklin was in France trying to secure - an alliance, but the rest is true.

- Next question: - By 1779, the American Revolution turned into - something of a world war, - with Spain entering into the conflict.

- With whom did they side?

- A.

The Americans and French, - or B. the English and Germans.

- So looking at it from the standpoint - that the Spanish were already here colonizing South America, Central America, and moving their way into Mexico - which is southern North America, - so they've already got a strong foothold here.

- You've got the British who are trying to colonize - the eastern seaboard and even into the Caribbean.

- It seems like there would have been some conflicts there.

- So I'm going to say then that the Spanish - would have sided with the Americans and French.

- The correct answer is A.

- OK. - On June 21st, 1779, Spain declared war on Great Britain, - attacking British positions in - what is now the southern United States, - therefore creating a de facto alliance with the Americans.

- Spain also provided money, supplies - and munitions to American forces.

- Moving on.

At the time of the American Revolution, - you'll like this one, - soldiers regularly ate something called fire cake.

- What were they eating?

- A.

Flat bread?

- B.

Beef Jerky.

- C. Spicy Cornbread.

- or, D. S'mores?

- OK, so smores, absolutely not.

- Spicy cornbread.

A little too modern.

- They may have had beef jerky with them and flatbread, - but something called fire cake... - that leads me more to flatbread.

- So I'm going to go with flat bread...A.

- The correct answer is A. flat bread - Fire cake is made from a mixture of flour and water.

- It was baked over a campfire.

- OK, next question: - What happened in New York City on November 25th, 1783 - that not only sparked celebrations, but was - commemorated with an annual holiday?

- A. Americans celebrated independence with the last - British soldier leaving Manhattan.

- B. Emma Goldman ignited labor protests in Union Square.

C. Masked loyalists tricked colonists into thinking - that they had lost the war.

- or, D. colonial merchants cut prices sharply - to encourage holiday shopping.

- [Laughter] OK, so let's talk through this a little bit.

- D. I'm going to say no, probably that probably is out.

- Emma Goldman was later...

I happen to know that, so - that would not fit with 1783.

- Nice.

- Masked loyalists tricked colonists into thinking - they had lost the war.

- Sounds a little far fetched for me.

- I'm going to go with A. Americans celebrated - independence with the last - British soldier leaving Manhattan.

- Nicely done.

- The correct answer is indeed A.

- Yes!

- The holiday was known as Evacuation Day - because the British evacuated New York on that day.

- Though largely forgotten today, the November 25th - holiday was once as big as the 4th of July.

- Wow.

- Can you imagine that?

- As big as Independence Day.

[Music] Made possible by: the New Jersey Historic Trust, advancing historic preservation in New Jersey for the benefit of future generations.

Also, the New Jersey Historical Commission, enriching the lives of the public by preserving the historical record and advancing interest in and awareness of New Jersey's past.

I bet you drive by a history marker and say to yourself, I should tell Drive By History about that.

Well, drop us a line on our website at DriveByHistory.tv click the contact us link on the upper right.

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