This exhibition—the first major survey of Thomas Chambers’s work since 1942—seeks to define his style, examine his sources, and investigate the popular audience for marine and landscape painting in the mid-nineteenth century. Active for almost three decades as a painter, Chambers left behind a boldly expressive and puzzling body of work. Recovered from obscurity in the mid-twentieth century, he was enthusiastically celebrated as an American folk painter whose rhythmic sense of contour, lively pattern, and strong color anticipated modern taste.

Approximately sixty objects, borrowed from public and private collections throughout the United States, are on display, including forty-five paintings by Chambers and fifteen related paintings by his contemporaries, plus books, furniture, and ceramics decorated in the same lively style.