Individuality, the quintessential American ideal interwoven into the cloth of the country itself, manifests itself differently throughout time. The American experience is marked by the struggle for freedom of expression and the quest to realize the self. The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” showing that America was founded on the very basis of these principles. Perhaps the most representative of this free spirit instilled in America is the period of American Impressionism. ​

Cover Image: Philip Leslie Hale, Crimson Rambler, 1908, oil on canvas, accessed February 23, 2016, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philip_Leslie_Hale_Crimson_Rambler.jpg.