When choosing the artworks to display at my Residence, I wanted the exhibition to reflect the America I know and love. For me, that starts with freedom and the awe-inspiring beauty of our nation’s natural landscapes.

The works on display capture the breadth and spirit of America’s stunning landscapes. They showcase the majesty of our country and the sense of adventure and optimistic possibility so key to the American story. From the quiet optimism of Don Resnick’s and Walter Emerson Baum’s watercolors to the energy of Helen Eakins Bowen’s seascape, the exhibition reflects a rich range of artistic perspectives. This theme continues in the vivid tones of Wolf Kahn’s works, which echo the beauty of our national parks, and in Gifford Beal’s Figures and Waterfall, which places the human figure in quiet dialogue with the natural landscape.

Together, these pieces speak to the spirit of liberty that has long fueled American creativity, innovation, and progress.

It is a privilege to showcase this art here in Brussels, and I would like to express my gratitude to all the artists on display. I would also like to thank the State Department’s Office of Art in Embassies for helping us showcase the richness of the United States of America through art.

Walter Emerson Baum was a central figure in the Pennsylvania impressionist tradition—an American twentieth-century movement with landscape painters active in and around Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Known for depicting the evolving landscapes and industrial towns of the region, Baum typically painted en plein air and favored thick, vigorous brushwork and strong tonal contrast to capture the distinctive atmosphere of Allentown, Manayunk, and nearby canal towns. His works often “display a greater intensity of pure color, with many of the buildings and other objects outlined in black.”

Born in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, Baum studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and later became an influential teacher and editor who was closely involved in shaping the region’s artistic community. He belonged to several organizations, namely the Philadelphia Sketch Club and the Salmagundi Club, New York, and co-founded the Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania, serving as its first director.

Painter and watercolorist Gifford Beal gained widespread recognition during the first half of the twentieth century for his expressive views of American life, from rural coastlines to bustling urban landscapes. Born into a wealthy New York family, Beal began his artistic training as a teenager with summer courses led by distinguished American impressionist William Merritt Chase. Under Chase’s tutelage, Beal mastered the impressionist technique of documenting the transient effects of light and atmosphere, a formative influence that shaped his approach throughout his career. By age twenty-two, he was exhibiting in galleries across the country, his work appealing to a broad audience.

Twentieth-century painter Helen Eakins Bowen primarily painted landscapes and abstract figures. Monhegan Surf – Monhegan Island, Maine depicts a small, rocky island ten miles off the mainland known for its high ocean cliffs and exposed coastal views. Accessible only by boat, Monhegan has long been a popular attraction for artists and visitors for its dramatic terrain and changing light. Active in New York City and Italy, Bowen studied and later remained an active member at the Art Students League, National Academy of Fine Arts, and the National Academy of Design.

In her later years, she was an artist resident at the Italian artist colony Castello Rocca Sinibalda, where she fulfilled a long-held ambition to paint in Europe. Her work is housed in the permanent collections of the Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; and the Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

In his oeuvre, Wolf Kahn combined the immediacy of realism with a disciplined exploration of color, creating landscapes defined by luminous chromatic intensity and subtle atmospheric depth. Although not a color-field painter, he drew on aspects of the movement—particularly its emphasis on broad planes of color—and integrated them into compositions that remain grounded in recognizable forms. His artistic practice was shaped by the teachings of abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann, the color palette of Henri Matisse, and the atmospheric qualities of American impressionism. Through his fusion of color, spontaneity, and representation, Kahn developed a rich and expressive body of work.

Don Resnick was a landscape painter drawn to the shifting terrain, sea, and sky of Long Island, New York. He would regularly sketch and draw from nature, though he never painted outdoors. Characterized by loose brushwork and “watercolor-like lucidity,” the works he completed in his studio were luminous and conveyed his vision of the environment. “The inspiration for my paintings is the intense experience of a place—its particular light, its particular space—at a unique moment in time,” he said.