INFO - American Art

Powhatan’s Mantle

Context: Diplomatic gift to James I. Ceremonial/ritual object

Message:

Details: 14 shapes by shells; federation/tribes in federacy compare to indigenous maps of the time. Four deer hides together.

Style: Symmetrical

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Replica of George Washington Covenant Belt

Context: Washington commissioned and gave to natives

Message: Ratification of 1794 treaty securing independence; established peace between America and Natives; diplomatic method of mutual sovereignty

Details: To figures are the two leaders

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Continuity: European (collectivity between peers, arranged on hierarchy, on emphasis on two different signatures)

Change: Manifestation of two different cultures and policies

Paul Revere

Context: Revere was a silversmith. Artists didn’t have formal education.

Message:

Details: No emblems of wealth, artisan’s clothing, humble cloth. Contemplation, shape of pot echoes how he holds his head - creativity and pot - output of creative mind. Pot is reflective- we all reflect. Tea pot = Boston Tea Party.

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Penn’s Treat with the Indians

Context: First American history painter. Studies abroad in London and Italy. Made a century after event. Penn’s family was unpopular during revolution.

Message: Our family is benevolent and entitled to the land. Claim to land is ethical.

Details: Offering cloth as trade. Natives wearing well-ornamented manufactured fabric.

Style:

Continuity: Pyramid forms, figures like ancient sculptures

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George Washington’s Society of Cincinnati Dinner Service

Context: Trendy. Chinese learn enamel form medieval Europeans. Expedited for market, glazed in advance, then painted quickly after

Message: Privilege of owning. Trade.

Details: Banded floral border, gold enamel. Winged figure is fame. Same design on every set = equality.

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Mah-to-toh-pa, Four Bears, Second Chief, in Full Dress

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Details: Portrait of Plains Indian Chief. Interest in difference as novelty (the idea of recording because they will go extinct). Wearing garments of power, but Catlin omitted for simplicity.

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Robe

Context: Painted by himself (four bears)

Message: Diplomatic gift made for display and narrative tool

Details: On animal hide. Shows his battles. A narrative aid.

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Continuity:

Change: Experimenting with materials from settlers, atmospheric elements from western painting

The Artist in His Museum

Context: Founded first natural history museum. Larger than life sized.

Message:

Details: Portraits of important men line the walls (demonstrate role of art in moral and civic education). Stuffed turkey (US rep) (shows there is still work to do) and dino bones —> representation of Peale. Mastodon skeleton he excavated in back (woman in awe)

Style: Visual order. Lifts grand manner curtain.

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Washington Crossing the Delaware

Context: Made 75 years after the event. Was originally in Germany. Turning point of Revolutionary War.

Message: Reminders of collective history during divisive time

Details: 13 soldiers = 13 colonies. Different races and classes. Light breaks before them, manifesting their victory.

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View from Mount Holyoke, Northamption, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow

Context: America is the new world and leaves behind urbanization

Message: Patriotic nationalism

Details: Blasted tree. Allegory of empire into geography of the US (seen in circular path the eye takes). Small self portrait that serves as a transition between nature and settlement. Obscures the seizing of native lands.

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Niagara

Context: Pinnacle of Hudson River School of Art. Symbolic of wealth of natural resources and energy.

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Details: Painted from Canadian side

Style: Manipulated perspective; greater access. Excess field of vision.

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Burnside Bridge, Across Antietam Creek, in Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War Volume I

Context: Mobile photography, super long exposure time. Forbes follows the army, draws visual events, altered landscape.

Message: Document Battle of Antietam

Details: Highly altered, set up scene after the battle occurs. Long exposure time means troops can’t be shown. A harvest of death.

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Change: Photography

Storage Jar

Context: Produced stoneware for South Carolina. Owner by potter.

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Continuity: Signs name - act of resistance because it shows he knows how to read and write. Went against anti-literacy laws.

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Forever Free

Context: Made while abroad.

Message:

Details: Man stands in triumph, shackles broken. Kneeling girl is racially ambiguous. Praying = biblical imagery. Forever free in English; Signature in Latin. Marble.

Style: Neoclassical

Continuity: Uses of contrapposto to bring power

Change: Black figures depicted with dignity and strength, challenging racial and artistic norms.

[Portrait] I sell the shadow to support the substance

Context: Chosen name and quote - sold and priced for her own benefit. Legal permission. Has copyright over image.

Message:

Details: Shown knitting (status as self-sufficient woman). Literacy to establish position of power - actually illiterate.

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The Banjo Lesson

Context: Studied abroad —> impressionist influence

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Details: Banjo (from West Indies, associated with AA), old man is sheltering, passing on education, spiritual enlightenment - not performing. Humble surroundings.

Style: Soft brushwork

Continuity: Combo of American Realism and the European Old Master

Change: Reclaiming banjo from minstrelsy. Rejects comic or demanding depictions of Black life.

East and West Shaking Hands at Laying of Last Rail

Context: Transcontinental railroad complete! Symbol of unity after Civil War. Initially hired Irish workers, but they unionized —> Chinese.

Message: Celebrates culture and objects but not people

Details: Asian-American labor not included in photo. Any photography of Asian workers is abstracted; no faces, only bodies.

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Pennsylvania Station Excavation

Context: Ash Can School: Paint with commitment to realism . Penn Station is a neoclassical dedication to rail connectivity.

Message: Commentary on changing New York.

Details: A type of man made canyon. Elevated vantage point and four workers on margins to emphasize gaping earth. Cranes emerge from steam

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Change: Rejects aestheticism and classicism

Plate XVIII. Powder-blue decorated vase, Oriental Ceramic Art from the William T. Walters Collection

Context: Introduces East Asian Art to American public. Attempted to establish chromolithography as high art.

Message:

Details: Reflection is window of Walter’s home, marking ownership.

Style: Mixing of Korean, Chinese, and Japanese

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Purple and Rose: The Lange Leitzen of the Six Marks

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Details: Just for the aesthetic, we don’t need to understand the cultural use.

Style: Oriental, symbolist (focused on evoking)

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The Bath

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Details: Figure is racially ambiguous. NOt idealized, awkward moment.

Style: Not a woodblock print. Cropped. Flat.

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Change: Not European anatomy; awkward in some places.

Peacocks and Peonies I and II

Context: American and European politics/fascination/objectification/oversimplification of the East. Went to Asia on painting tour.

Message: Show worldly qualities of owner

Details:

Style: Flat planes of color, cropped, high ground line, flower motif. Diptych = Japanese/Chinese screens?.

Continuity:

Change: Invented opalescent stained glass

Migration Series

Context: Millions of AA moved to the NE to escape Jim Crow laws

Message: Collective memory making.

Details:

Style: Simplified geometric shapes, colors - quilt, patchwork - people brought quilts with them

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From Slavery to Reconstruction in Aspects of N***o Life

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Details: Eye from left to right, figure holds emancipation proclamation, breaks chains, rejoice, army of KKK, appears to marching away - darkness held off - suffering, right to vote, points to capitol hill. Guiding lights to follow to possible future. Time is collapsed.

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