Wiscasset Bay Gallery Jean de Botton CMYK
Jean de Botton, “Elements marins.”

Wiscasset Bay Gallery, celebrating its 42nd year, opened “The Grand Tour in Thirty Days” May 23 in Wiscasset. The exhibition takes viewers through some of the most popular and remote locales across Europe during the 19th and early 20th centuries, tracing the evolution of painting from realism to impressionism to modernism.

Among the standout works is an oil on panel by French artist Jean de Botton (1898-1978). In “Elements marins,” a line of triangular sails forms a geometric pattern of white against the deep blue Mediterranean, capturing a sailboat regatta off the coast of Saint-Tropez. Botton led a wide-ranging life — traveling, creating art around the world and serving as a ballet librettist, writing scripts for Parisian ballets and painting the legendary dancer Josephine Baker. His work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, among others.

Wiscasset Bay Gallery Luigi Moretti Burano CMYK
Luigi Moretti, “Burano.”

Scottish painter Robert Weir Allan (1851-1942) contributes a boldly rendered oil of the Scottish coast, large rugged headlands set against a clearing sky, with four children swimming in the surf as their mother watches from shore. American artist Polly Parker Nordell (1876-1958) likewise employs impressionist technique, depicting children playing with balloons and toys amid purple shadows and dappled light in Paris’ Luxembourg Gardens.

Other works in the exhibition include Leon Kroll’s “Mont Sainte-Victoire,” Kurt Leyde’s “Campo del Sur, Cadiz,” Auguste Herzog’s “Outside the Berlin Cafe,” Ivan Kuleff’s “Citrons” and Mary Cassatt’s “Sara Smiling.”

The exhibition runs through June 24.

Wiscasset Bay Gallery is at 75 Main St., Wiscasset. Call 207-882-7682, email info@wiscassetbaygallery.com, or go to wiscassetbaygallery.com for more information.