American Art History Exam 2

Charles Willson Pealre

George Washington at the Battle of Princeton

1779

The US was a new concept, nobody knew what a presidency would looks like, Republic, Colonial portrait, replace the portrait of the King in people’s homes, Peale was at the original battle

Gilbert Stuart

George Washington (Athenaeum Portrait)

1796

Most famous portrait of George Washington, Gilbert also studied with West, paints 100 portraits of Washington, sells engravings, concentrates on the head, sternness, lips pressed, figure not smiling

Hyacinthe Rigaud

Bishop Bossuet

17th century

Not his most popular portrait, aimed specifically for a British audience, someone who was supportive of the New Republic, full length, not accurate body, detail on the chair of state, Constitution and the American Revolution, holding a sword, showing his gifts to America, President gives up power

Gilbert Stuart

George Wahington (Lansdowne Portrait)

1796

Baroque portrait, swinging drapery, intellectual powers with books

Ingres

Napoleon as First Consul

1804

Stuart was to position George Washington as being as good as the 17th century French kings, wants to also distinguish him from Napoleon, chair and table that express French power and richness, city of Forbore that had been destroyed because of Napoleon, got it rebuilt and his gift of reconstruction, also pointing to his achievements, richness of France

Jean-Antoine Houdon

George Washington, for Richmond, Virginia, state capitol

1788

George Washinton was so well-liked throughout the world that sculptors in Europe competed to portray him, Great Neoclassical sculpture, Houdon game to Virginia and wanted to portray him exactly, exact measurements, making a comparison to a great Roman General Cincinnatus, someone who gave up power and returned to his farm, him as a military general, walking stick, plow behind him, column

Antonio Canova

George Washington, for the capitol at the Raleigh, North Carolina Statue lost, model and print

1818

Artists start to move away for absolute specificity, more ideal version, makes him even more like Cincinnatus, Roman clothing

Horatio Greenough

George Washinton, for the capitol Rotunda in Washington DC

1841

Young sculpture, commission from Congress, goes to Italy to carve the marble, working in Rome, instead of comparing him to Caesar, compares him to the God Jupiter, Greek God Zeus, on a throne, handing his sword to the people, handing back power, refusal to become and emperor, disliked from the start, unacceptable, exiled to the grounds outside of the capitol, elevated him to a God and not an American anymore

Thomas Jefferson

Plater model for the Virginia State Capitol

1786

Maison Carree

Nimes, France

19 BCE

The Virginia legislature writes to Thomas Jefferson, ask him to supply a design for the new Virginia State Capitol, Jefferson was aware of diversity, poverty and rich, architectural contrast, wanted more uniformity, equality, fan of Neoclassicism, language of math and reason, straight lines, circles, triangles, architecture of law, rules, simple, copies the Roman temple, brings back the plaster model, made it public, what is being worshipped there is the rule of law

William Thornton

Capitol Building, Washington DC

1794

Jefferson submitted a design for the Capitol Building in Washington D.C., William Thornton won the competition, he was a amateur architect similar to Jefferson, design won because it adapted Neoclassical language, creates a temple in the center, like the Pantheon in Rome, planned equal wings, gone back to Ancient Rome, feels modern, international quality

Latrobe corn and tobacco capitals

for US Capitol columns

Capital changes, continues to grow, American crops, dome keeps getting bigger

Horatio Greenough

The Rescue

1837

Commissioned sculpture for the steps of the Capitol, did the sculpture of George Washington as Zeus, showing a different American, ordinary, wearing classical clothes, Native American, symbol of territory, wife and child, dog, family life, wrestles with a wild savage, knew about Vanderlyn’s paintings of The Death of Jane McCrea, where the woman represents America

Charles Deas

The Death Struggle

1845

American pioneer, Native American counterpart, popular subject, artist who was based in Saint Louis, compared to Greenough, more sympathetic of the Native American side, two horses, falling, both doomed, by their own character, reaching to grab a branch, stealing from the Native Americans by holding the animal, Native American is holding onto the white man, Native friend watching, not a family friend

Charles Bird King

Young Omaha, War Eagle, Little Missouri, and Pawnees

1821

Portrait painter that studied with West, wearing a peace medal gift, that Lewis and Clark and people like them gave as a gift of agreement, portrays the noble savage, noble because they are signing treaties, ethnographic style

Thomas Crawford

Statue of Freedom (Armed Freedom), Capitol Dome, Washington DC

1857-62

Supposed to be a Statue of Liberty at the top of the dome on the Capitol, said no to the initial design due to slavery, instead an armed freedom, sword, stars on her crown, classical Goddess, feathered headdress

View of the University of Virginia

Chromolithograph of c. 1856

Designs for the City of Washington other than the Capital, from the start, planned city, recreation of historical architecture, symbol of the new concept of the federal government, Federal style, first public university, ones that already existed were private and religious, free to anyone in the state, next to the town, rows of buildings, Peale’s portrait of George Washington you can see Princeton University in the background, private college, battle at Princeton, brick building hall, chapel, library is based off of the Pantheon, math, rule of law, excludes religion

Nicholas Hawksmoor

All Souls College, Oxford

1734

Jefferson is thinking about England and Europe, not other US universities, Oxford college applies a gothic architecture, college that is devoted to religion, Jefferson didn’t want it to be closed to most people, open to everyone, University of Virginia, library, quad, green, housing

Charles Willson Peale

Peale Family

1773

Artist, officer, scientist, Botanist, inventor, anthropologist, farmer, portrait painter, founder of art institutions, artists can charge prices for his genius not materials, studies with Benjamin West, was on the radical side of the revolution, family gathered around the table, shows himself as artist with paints, taught his brothers how to paint, painting woman, woman paint fruit and nature, family works together

Peale

Benjamin and Eleanor Laming

1788

One of his 600 portraits of wealthy people, Merchant in his country home with his wife, wedding portrait, holding a serving stick for surveying the land, inappropriate meaning with fruit, love for one another, peacock, parasite to Peale, lives off of other peoples labor, economically less of a man, effects how he is portrayed in the painting

Charles Willson Peale

Portraits of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson

1785 and 1791

People that Peale admired, paints men who he sees as great Americans, founders of the country, not commissioned, plain style, not idealizing them, not landscape in the background, gallery of great man, didn't do celebrities

Charles Willson Peale

Effigy of Benedict Arnold

1780

Fought in the war, makes political banners, politically active, stuffed figure riding on a wagon, gold he sold out for, 3 faces, lantern, taking a mask off, different way of representing the bad

Charles Willson Peale

The Staircase Group

1795

Found American Art institutions, doesn’t restrict access like the royal academy, built with a real doorway and one step, portrait of his kids, importance of nature versus the moral lesson that historical painters would have in their paintings, deceptive perspective, illusion, calling card, where he signs his work

Titian Peale

Long room of the Peale Museum water-color

Installs this in a room in his house, rows of his portraits, adds Natural History specimens, rare fish from Benjamin Franklin, his son Titian Peale went on expeditions, Native American artifacts, clothing and weapons, stuffed animals for exhibitions,

Charles Willson Peale

Exhumation of the Mastodon

1806-08

Moved to from his house to Independence hall in Philadelphia, private organization, blew up after the mastodon bones were added, painting shows this event, Europe believed that America is the same but less, Europe found the Mastodon interesting, America was different for this, mill Peale built, brought his whole family, him saving America’s natural history

Charles Willson Peale

The Artist in his Museum

1822

Asked to paint a self portrait, shows himself in the role as a painter and a scientist, taxidermies animals, classification system, museum, bring order to American nature, mastodon jaw, more welcoming, inviting you in and looking at the viewer, American view wants art and nature, mix of real and fake history

Raphaelle Peale

Still life with Wind Glass

1818

John Willson Peale belief that nature was a crucial subject for The American School of Art, his son Raphaelle Peale, first Still life painter at the school and only one, doing what is often in portrait painting, fruit, woman’s role, plain board, worked in his fathers museum’s, trading rare vegetables

Raphaele Peale

Melons and Morning Glories

1813

Gave the exact day, similar to a natural state specimen, freshly harvested

John Audubon

Purple Grackle

1822

Showing specimens, white background, focusing on the birds, showing the natural, similar to the tobacco plant display, different states of the plant

Francisco de Zurbaran

Still life with lemons, oranges, and a rose

1633

Dutch and Spanish paintings, not originals but copies, seventh century still life, table organized for your consumption, models for what Raphaelle Peale was looking too

Pieter Claesz

Breakfast Still life

1641

Raphealle Peale

Still life with Strawberries and Cream

1816

A dish but doesn’t give us a spoon to access it, doesn’t invite us to touch it, sweet citrus dessert, very detailed, composition with design

Raphaelle Peale

A Dessert

1814

Raphaelle Peale

Still life with Cake

1822

Includes really expensive object within the still life’s, cake called a Twelfth Night cake, takes a dozen eggs, for Christmas, expensive, fancy ostrich egg

Raphaelle Peale

Still life with Ostrich Egg Cup

1814

Rembrandt Peale

Rubens Peale with a Geranium

1801

Family’s belief of illusionism, portrait of his brother, rare, from South Africa, gotten to bloom before Thomas Jefferson, won the competition

Raphaelle Peale

Venus Rising from the Sea: A Deception (After the Bath)

1823

Trope l’oeil painting, illusionism, picture of a woman, showing that what he does take more skill, tricking people

Margaretta Peale

Strawberries and Cherries

amateur painter

Mary Jane Peale

Still life

professional still life painter, seen as something that woman could paint at home

Thomas cole

Schroon Mountain, Adirondacks

1838

Landscape painting became the dominant thing to paint,

Frederic Church

Niagara

1857

John White, G. Cooke View of Washington DC

Landscape that did exist, top view is supposed to show human developments, not just the land, topographic view, expresses human design

Wahington Allston

Self-Portrait

1805

Imaginary landscape, doesn’t depict actual places, include pure nature and wilderness versus manmade structures, wanted to become an artist and moves to Europe, thinks he needs to become a history painter, portrait of himself, ruins in the background

Washington Allston

Elijah in the Desert

1818

History painting, from the Old Testament, brings back to Boston, interested in religion, place where men suffer, purpose of this landscape is to show Elijah’s situation and hostility, despair and misery

Allston

Moonlit Landscape

1819

Landscape that is hard to make out, trying to convey a mood, yearning, human mind, emotion

Claude Lorraine

Landscape with the father of Psyche sacrificing to Apollo

1660-70

Nationalism, combining the imaginary landscape with the topographic landscape, trying to replicate Claude Lorraine’s style, known for his imagined landscapes, classical buildings creating something that is orderly and regular, signs of human development

William Gilpin

Windermer in Observations on several parts of England

1772

Claude glass (mirror)

c. 1775

Lakeview, picturesque, mirror, miniaturized view of nature, Gilpin said the importance is variety, rough and smooth surfaces, avoid sameness

William Gilpin

“Smooth Lines” and “Broken Lines”

1792

One on the left is disgusting because it is repetitive and uniform, one on the right has contrast and variety, humans and ruins, picturesque where you can see emotion

Thomas Cole

Sunny Morning on the Hudson

1827

Took European conventions for the landscape and used them to reconstruct the actual American landscape, moved to America with his father, goes to New York, five paintings of the mountains, huge success immediately, actual landscapes and then he reworks them, looking for the wilderness and they invoke the sublime, natures violence and power, storms, fear, Native American in the scene

Thomas Cole

Kaaterskill Falls

1826

George Harvey

Catskill Mountain House, watercolor

1845-50

Went to the hotel and watched for the view of the Hudson River, wanted people to stay longer, nature tourism, America’s power, for elites and not cheap to be gone for a week, only for the aesthetic

Parker-Gray

Climbing the Catskills

1875

Thomas Cole

Lake with Dead Trees, Catskills

1825

Edits out signs of tourism, lake with dead trees, grim scene

Cole

Kaaterskill Falls

1826

Viewing platform, trip to the Catskills, water pouring out, heightens the drama, sublime, known to be the first to show the American Landscape truthfully, inspires other artists

Sanford Gifford

Caterskill Clove

1862

Jasper Cropey

Catskill Mountain House

1855

Thomas Cole

View from Mount Holyoke (The Ox-Bow)

1836

British people traveled to America wondering if it measured up to Britain democracy, agreed that the nature was astonishing, Ox-Bow: almost perfect circle, emphases the tree, houses, boats, topographic view that is very detailed, puts himself painting looking at the viewer

Basil Hall

“View from Mt. Holyoke”

1829

Thomas Cole

Savage State: The Course of Empire

1836

Commission by a major collector, narratives, infusing feeling, similar mountain in other paintings, enveloped in clouds, wilderness, man wearing skins, not really a Native American, nature looks unaltered by humans

Thomas Cole

Pastoral State: The Course of Empire

1836

Not just the mountain that has company, the mountain is the main character, looks like Stonehenge, religious society, organized in a community, more advanced than the last painting

Cole

Consummation: The Course of Empire

1836

Biggest painting in the collection, almost no nature left, based on Rome, rich

Thomas Cole

Destruction: The Course of Empire

1836

Hero is the mountain, stormy destruction, headless statue, back in the savage state, men raping and killing

Thomas Cole

Desolation: The Course of Empire

1836

Romantic subject, past civilization, ruins, all human achievements are gone, moral is that nature services, immortality that humans don’t have, “First Freedom and then Glory—when that fails,/Wealth, vice, corruption” Byron, rising of the sun, warning to Americans, market for great moral landscapes, allegories that told human narratives, continued to paint wilderness paintings

Thomas Cole

Childhood: The voyage of Life

1840

Realized the market if you could infuse landscape with historic pictures, more religious, follows a single human life, changes throughout someones lifetime, baby is being born into the world, floral and plants versus rocks, angel guiding him

Thomas Cole

Youth: The Voyage of Life

1840

Angel is waving goodbye, he is driving, smooth green valleys, panorama, put on a stage, moving canvas, metaphor for travel

Thomas Cole

Manhood: The Voyage of Life

1840

The man is alone, given up on steering the boat

Thomas Cole

Old Age: The Voyage of Life

1840

Guardian angel has returned, no more hourglass, end of his life, eternal life waiting

Frederic Church

Niagara Falls

1857

Most famous of the Landscape school, followed Cole’s trajectory, artist studios, wilderness, traveled, places special to America

Albert Bierstadt

Looking Down Yosemite Valley

1865

View of Frederic Church’s residence on the Hudson river

Olana

1872

Both build mansions on the Hudson River

Lithograph of Albert Bierstadt’s residence on the Hudson river

Malkasten

1876

View of Frederic Church’s residence

Olana

1872

Designed and filled with things he found when traveling, elaborate patterns

Frederic Church

Niagara Falls

1857

Represented 100’s of times, reworking a subject, seeking the sublime, first person to capture the view, no framing trees, long canvas, panoramic, thought about the physics of the water, attention to detail

Trumbull

View of Niagara Falls from the British Side

1807

Can’t escape the framing of the picturesque

Alvan Fisher

General View of Niagara Falls

1820

More Topographic style, Birds Eye view, far away

Frederic Church

Heart of the Andes

1859

Trip to South America, put in the view of everywhere within one composition, invented a composition, science, exhibited it on its own, had people pay to see it, the amount of detail, an experience, like a window

Albert Bierstadt

Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak

1863

Travels the US with a scientist, going to the Rocky Mountains, eye witness to the West, more staged, less detailed, westward expansion of the US that was going to end the original living of Natives, people pay to see the one painting

Carleton Watkins

three Brothers, Yosemite

1861

Photograph

Albert Bierstadt

Sunset in Yosemite Valley

1868

Bierstadt continues to paint in Yosemite, the lighting gets more brilliant, the mountains get taller, heightens the excitement

Bierstadt

The Domes of the Yosemite

1867

Church

Twilight in the Wilderness

1860

Untouched wilderness, no sign of human presence, no where to stand, painted right before the civil war

Church

Our Banner in the Sky

1861

Negative space of the clouds turn into the flag, stars and sky

Church

Icebergs (The North)

1861

Showing the power and strength of the North during the War, power of the landscape, America is this great force of nature

Fitz-Henry Lane

Brace’s Rock, Gloucester

1863

Luminicsm, created in the 1950’s, none of the artists knew each other just grouped together, flamboyant sunset, versus not very contrast between the sky and water, non-dramatic, sublime, Lane example of a Luminosity artist in England, painting coastlines usually, marine painting,

Robert Salmon

Wharves of Boston

1829

Luminicsm painting started in New England, most of the wealthy people made their money in shipping,

Jan van Goyen

View of Dordrecht

1649

Goyen is known for marine painting, no effort to show wilderness, human colonization of the water

Lane

Boston Harbor, Sunset

1850

Pushes the harbor line really far back, endless expanse of the harbor

Lane

New York Harbor

1855

Asked to do another one for New York, creation of faster ships, to replace tall ships

Lane

Owl’s Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine

1862

Lane

Christmas Cove, Maine

1863

Little fishing coves in Maine, summer tourism, old industries starting to go under, landscape that is being abandoned

Martin Heade

That Stranded Boat

1863

Luminist painter, abandoned boat, evidence of human presence, foggy, started as a marine painter later in life

Martin Heade

Salt Marshes, Newport, Rhode Island

1866

Heade

Newburyport Marshes, Massachusetts

1862

Haystacks in marshes, topographic views, landscape that is uneventful

Heade

Amethyst Hummingbird with White Orchid

1870

Also known for his natural history still lives, focused on hummingbirds in Brazil, closed and open orchid, flower is pushing into the foreground with a landscape in the background

Church

Sunset

1856

Sheep/pastoral life, not really wilderness, Church’s work is maybe more luminist, not a real style, mode of marine painting, painting what was fleeting in the current industrial movement

Heade

Sunset on the Marshes

1867

Whitney Museum exhibition catalog

1974

Charles Sheeler

Home, Sweet Home

1931

Folk art style took off, new distinct style, geometric, hard-edged, something that comes from the US, inspired by cubism, architecture design, flat, linear, patterned, usually anonymous artist

Ammi Phillips

Portrait of Harriet Leavens

1815

Some training, but not exact proportions, geometric and stylized, simplified

Girl in Red

1835

Erastus Field

Joseph Moore family

1839

Old-fashioned in the way that it is composed, very little emotion, elaborate patterns

William Prior

Sisters of the Copeland Family

1858

Folk artist is reaching more of the middle class, African American family that were middle class, not trying to be realistic, painting with more dimension cost more

Daguerreotype of a woman

c. 1850

Daguerreotypes were photographs, individual artworks, a lot of folk artists were portrait painters

Erastus Field

Garden of Eden

1860-79

Taking popular biblical subjects, create same window effect with the frame as Church for an example who would display his one painting

Erastus Field

Historical Monument of the American Republic

1865-88

His masterpiece, started it after the Civil War, trains on the top connecting the buildings, main tower for Abraham Lincoln, decorations on the towers showing important events, biblical themes throughout

Edward Hicks

Peaceable Kingdom

1833

Portrait painters for middle class families, folk artists, Kicks didn’t really do portraits, mostly did religious images, starts with an academic source/engraving, he was a Quaker, Heaven on Earth

Rufus Hathaway

A View of Mr. Joshua Winsor’s House

1795

Folk artists usually paint landscapes as human property, includes some nature, birds being shot at, landscape that is completely controlled

Edward Hicks

Cornell Farm

1848

Family just won a big prize in a fair, prize winning livestock, landscape controlled, topographic view, organized for the market

Eunice Pinney

Farm Scene, and Two Women

1815

Folk artists were still considered professionals, Pinney was an amateur artist, looking at engravings like Hicks, art was not closed to woman, but their access was limited to class of the nude

Anonymous

Ceremony at a Young Ladies Seminary

1810

Anonymous

The Watercolor Class

1815-20

Learning from a master/teacher, copying from engravings or paintings, learning the rules of the picturesque, everyone in the class is doing the same thing, ladies school, arts were not closed to woman, they are doing it for their own creativity, not competing against men in the bigger artist market

Anonymous

Memorial for Philo Day

Eunice Pinney

Undedicated Memorial

1815

Memorial genres, watercolors, for a passed family member, shows the family around the stone, place where you were supposed to express sentiment, death is becoming to display the correct sentiments, chance to show feeling