The Crocker Art Museum's "Summer of Impressionism" ought really to be called "Summer of Impressionism, Etc."

The three exhibits that fill up the museum's summer schedule are not just shows of Impressionism but rather the story of Impressionism's dissemination from France to America. They cover the antecedents that Impressionism reacted against and stemmed from, and the inheritors of Impressionism who looked toward Modernism.

"Transcending Visions: American Impressionism, 1870-1940," 125 works on loan from the Bank of America Collection, traces the development of American painting from the Hudson River School, which preceded Impressionism, to the Ashcan School, which built on Impressionist theory but depicted a darker, more urban America in works that leaned toward Realism.

"Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism" presents 40 mid-19th century to early-20th century French and American landscapes from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. It moves from the Barbizon school, which preceded the Impressionists, through American Impressionism, which tends to be more conventional than French Impressionism since the American artists who studied in France were formally trained in French academies.

("Gardens and Grandeur" Porcelains and Paintings by Franz A. Bischoff, which opens Saturday, will give us a look at a California Impressionist who, like Pierre Auguste Renoir, began his career as a china painter and was known as "the King of the Roses." More on that show later.)

"Transcending Visions" begins with works by Hudson River painters Sanford Gifford and Thomas Moran, who were known for their quasi-religious paintings of the grandeur of nature. Moran, who specialized in paintings of the Grand Canyon, is here represented by "View of Fairmount Waterworks, Philadelphia," an atypical subject done nevertheless with the kind of grand scope that characterized his work.

Gifford, who is sometimes called a "Luminist," gives us a glowing scene of Mount Tacoma from Puget Sound. Both works were done in the 1870s and exemplify the kind of heroic landscape that the Impressionists reacted against.

William Morris Hunt's "Pasture by a Pond," also circa 1870, points toward the next step in the evolution of American painting, Tonalism, which stemmed from the French Barbizon school of painters who went outside to the Forest of Fontainebleau to work directly from nature. A number of Tonalist works follow, including a magnificent George Inness work from 1880, "Meadowland in June," which focuses on a more intimate view of nature done in tender tones of intense yet dark greens.

The show then moves to the American version of Impressionism with a stunning painting by Childe Hassam, "Old House, East Hampton, 1917," which is radiant with bright brushstrokes of pure color. Verging on the post-Impressionist works of Vincent van Gogh, the directional brushstrokes have a vibrant sense of vitality that adds to the immediacy of the expression.

Nearby is Lawton S. Parker's "First Born," a rosy scene of a mother and child that makes one think of works by Renoir.

While most of the paintings in the show are landscapes, there are some strong figurative works, among them Lilla Cabot Perry's "The Poacher, 1907." It typifies the divide between the French Impressionists and American Impressionists with the large figure in the foreground verging on Realism and the landscape in the background reminding one of Claude Monet, who was Perry's neighbor when she lived near Giverny.

There are a number of exciting Impressionist-influenced works with typically American subject matter, from Guy Carleton Wiggins' "Trinity Church, Wall Street" done in the 1930s, to "Gifford Beal's "Garden Beach," a bold view of working-class figures on a beach done in the 1920s. There is also a dramatic painting of a burning bridge by Edward Willis Redfield that combines Impressionist color in the smoky sky and a dark-edged view of spectators in silhouette that make you think of the Ashcan painters.

A portion of the show deals with scenes of the Southwest and California by such eminent painters as Edgar Payne, who will be the subject of a future Crocker show, and Oscar E. Berninghaus, who offers a view of the Church at Ranchos de Taos, one of the most painted and photographed structures in the Southwest.

As Chief Crocker Curator Scott Shields points out, many of the artists in the show worked back and forth between Impressionism and other modes, as is apparent in two works by Bruce Crane, who gives us a Corot-like Tonalist painting of a meadow from the 1880s and a Monet-like winter scene done in 1920.

While "Transcending Visions," on the museum's third floor, is the larger of the two shows now on view, you might be wise to start with "Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism" on the new Crocker's second floor. Here you will see paintings by Monet, Camille Pissarro and Gustave Caillebotte that give you a splinter of the true cross of French Impressionism.

Monet's "Rising Tide of Pourville, 1882" is a typical Impressionist scene of a house on a promontory overlooking the sea on a gray day. The image is cropped so that the house abuts the right edge of the canvas and the viewer is looking down on the image, flattening out the space, as though offering a premonition of Modernism.

An interesting contrast is formed by the juxtaposition of Monet's "The Islets at Port-Villez" and "Vernon in the Sun." The former is a misty view of small islands that is a preliminary study and thus has passages of unpainted canvas, while the latter is a finished scene whose layered, broken brushstrokes give the canvas a strongly tactile feeling.

Nearby is a magnificent example of an American Impressionist work, "Early Spring Afternoon, Central Park, 1911" by Willard Leroy Metcalf, a beautifully realized view of New York's skyline behind barely budding spring trees in the park. Also outstanding is John Henry Twachtman's "Reflections," a silvery, atmospheric scene of a boat dock.

John Singer Sargent's "Dolce Far Niente" is a stunning painting of figures at their leisure, picnicking and playing chess outdoors, that combines Impressionist color with a Velázquez-like facility with the brush.

Like "Transcending Visions," the show offers an art history lesson with wonderful early works by Barbizon painters Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin and Charles Daubigny. Pissarro's lush "The Climb, Rue de la Côte-Du-Jalet, Pontoise, 1875," on the other hand, almost looks forward to early Paul Cézanne.

There is also an opportunity to compare works by several artists who are included in both shows, among them Inness and Hassam, who is represented here by a smashing scene of poppies on the Isles of Shoals.

SUMMER OF IMPRESSIONISM

What: The story of how Impressionism came to the United States and its impact unfolds in "Transcending Vision: American Impressionism, 1870- 1940" and "Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism." And there's more to come.

Hours: "Transcending Vision" will be on exhibit through Sept. 25, and "Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism," through Sept. 18. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday-Sunday. Starting July 1, they will change to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, except Thursday, which will be 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Where: Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St., in Sacramento

Admission: $10 adults, $8 seniors 65 and older, $8 for military and college students, $5 for youths 7-17. Members and children age 6 and under are free. Every third Sunday of the month is "Pay What You Wish Sunday," courtesy of Bank of America.

Information: (916) 808-7000, www.crockerartmuseum.org

Note: The museum has planned several exhibition- related programs, including a Sacramento landscapes photo contest, a classical music concert with a performance of Debussey's Sonata for Violin and Piano, and a series of plein air painting sessions with demonstrations and one-on-one instruction. Visit the museum's website, or call (916) 808-1182.

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