“ROOFTOPS, NEW HOPE”: This painting by R.A.D. Miller (1905-1966) is featured in “Impressionism to Modernism: The Lenfest Collection of American Art,” on view at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa., through January 5. The exhibit includes about 100 works by over 30 artists.

Now open at the Michener Museum in Doylestown, Pa., “Impressionism to Modernism: The Lenfest Collection of American Art” pays tribute to one of the Michener’s most impactful donors, Gerry Lenfest.

Lenfest and his wife, Marguerite, donated 59 Pennsylvania Impressionist paintings to the Michener in 1999. This comprehensive collection is the cornerstone of the Michener’s holdings of American Impressionism, with important works by Walter Emerson Baum, Fern Coppedge, John Fulton Folinsbee, Daniel Garber, William Lathrop, Edward Redfield, George Sotter, Robert Spencer, and Walter Elmer Schofield.

A compendium of Modernist works, donated by the Lenfests in 2010, rounds out this exhibition, featuring pieces by Charles Frederick Ramsey, Louis Stone, Charles Evans, Lloyd Ney, and Charles Rosen, among others.

On view through January 5, “Impressionism to Modernism” includes approximately 100 works by over 30 artists, dating from the late 1890s to the late 1950s, encompassing one of the most creative and significant periods in the history of the region and American art.

Viewing the collection in total complicates the predominant understanding of 20th-century American art as a continual progression towards abstraction. The distinct styles represented demonstrate that artists, influenced by the European avant-garde, experimented with non-objective painting at the same time that Impressionist artists continued to dominate exhibitions and win awards. These artists lived, worked, and exhibited in the same communities, even as they trafficked in very different aesthetic philosophies.

For the first time ever, Michener visitors can experience this collection in its entirety, through the eyes of these visionary collectors.

The Michener Art Museum is located at 138 South Pine Street, Doylestown, Pa. It is open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. For more information, visit MichenerArtMuseum.org or call (215) 340-9800.