Continental drift

Why did Florence become a hotspot for Americans in the late 19th and early 20th century? Henry James, Edith Wharton, John Singer Sargent and a gang of other American artists and writers descended on the Arno, often for years at a time. Sargent, born in Florence, the son of a Philadelphia eye surgeon, didn’t get to see America until he was 20. This engaging — if chaotic — exhibition answers the question.

The Grand Tour had been around since the 16th century, first for the aristocracy and then for the bourgeoisie of northern Europe; Americans were part of the artistic immigrant crowd from the mid-18th century. But it was only at the end of the Civil War that a critical mass of Americans had the security — and money — to roam the Continent at leisure, their travel smoothed by European railways and transatlantic steamers.

Like his compatriots Sargent and Whistler, Henry James was one of these ‘hotel children’, born to rich, cosmopolitan parents, whose Grand Tours could last for decades.