Introduction to the Arts in America MIDTERM

John Singleton Copley, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Mifflin, 1773

Famous as one of Copley's finest works soon after it was painted, this portrait shows the artist at the height of his powers. Born in Boston in 1738 into a poor immigrant family, Copley was self-taught. He developed a highly finished style that rendered the features, costumes, and settings of his subjects with remarkable accuracy. Here, Copley depicts not only the features and costumes of his sitters with his famed skill, but creates an image of marriage as an affectionate, equal partnership--an innovative concept in American portraiture at the time He may have been inspired to paint the Mifflins together by his contemporary Charles Willson Peale, who recently had returned from art study in London with the newly fashionable idea of placing two or more figures together in informal poses. By showing both Sarah and Thomas Mifflin on a single canvas, Copley not only depicts the features and costumes of his sitters with his famed, painstaking skill (Sarah recalled that he required twenty sittings for the hands alone) but also creates an image of marriage as an affectionate, equal partnership—an innovative concept in American portraiture at the time. As a penetrating study of an undoubtedly happy union, it has few peers among paintings of any era.

Paul Revere, The Able Doctor, or America Swallowing the Bitter Draught, 1774

*engraving* - brits sexually violating America - lady liberty looking away in horror Cartoon shows Lord North, with the "Boston Port Bill" extending from a pocket, forcing tea (the Intolerable Acts) down the throat of a partially draped Native female figure representing "America" whose arms are restrained by Lord Mansfield, while Lord Sandwich, a notorious womanizer, restrains her feet and peeks up her skirt. Britannia, standing behind "America", turns away and shields her face with her left hand.

Johannes Stradanus, Amerigo Vespucci Awakens a Sleeping America from Nova Reperta, Antwerp, 1600

*engraving* Americans have no civilization at all. America is unclothed and portrayed as a woman. Animals are on America's side and Ships are on Vespucci's side. Americans- cannibals Image uses an allegory: assumption that white viewer gets how it works- method for assessing someones civilization It visualizes Amerigo Vespucci's first encounter with America, represented as a nude indigenous woman in a hammock. In the background cannibals roast human flesh and exotic animals roam.

Simon Van de Passe, Pocahontas, 1618

*engraving* - only known portrait of Pocahontas rendered from life - during her stay in England, Dutch engraver Simon van de Passe captured her likeness and recorded that she, like the artist himself, was 21 years old - first of many depictions of Pocahontas intended to demonstrate that a Native American could adopt the demeanor of a "civilized" European - the Virginia Company—backers of the Jamestown settlement—likely commissioned the engraving with this in mind, hoping to attract more colonists and investors - promotes the false impression that she was a princess in the European sense; the inscription describes her as the daughter of a mighty emperor, and the ostrich feather in her hand is a symbol of royalty - this engraving offers a sound estimate of Pocahontas's true appearance.

Paul Revere, The Bloody Massacre, 1770

*hand colored engraving* was probably the most effective piece of war propaganda in American history. Not an accurate depiction of the actual event, it shows an orderly line of British soldiers firing into an American crowd and includes a poem that Revere likely wrote. Revere based his engraving on that of artist Henry Pelham, who created the first illustration of the episode—and who was neither paid nor credited for his work. Paul Revere used in his engraving to shape public opinion: The British are lined up and an officer is giving an order to fire, implying that the British soldiers are the aggressors. The colonists are shown reacting to the British when in fact they had attacked the soldiers. British faces are sharp and angular in contrast to the Americans' softer, more innocent features. This makes the British look more menacing. The British soldiers look like they are enjoying the violence, particularly the soldier at the far end. The colonists, who were mostly laborers, are dressed as gentlemen. Elevating their status could affect the way people perceived them. The only two signs in the image that you can read are "Butcher's Hall" and "Customs House," both hanging directly over the British soldiers. There is a distressed woman in the rear of the crowd. This played on eighteenth-century notions of chivalry. There appears to be a sniper in the window beneath the "Butcher's Hall" sign. Dogs tend to symbolize loyalty and fidelity. The dog in the print is not bothered by the mayhem behind him and is staring out at the viewer. The sky is illustrated in such a way that it seems to cast light on the British "atrocity." Crispus Attucks is visible in the lower left-hand corner. In many other existing copies of this print, he is not portrayed as African American.

John White, The Manner of their Fishing, 1585

*watercolor* - group of Indians is portrayed using fire, spears, and traps to catch fish in this watercolor painting by John White, the English artist who in 1585 accompanied a failed colonizing expedition to Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. Thomas Hariot, who accompanied White and the colonists, later described how the Indians "by nighte or day [struck] fishes, and take them opp into their boates." At night, fire may have been used as bait, attracting fish to its light. White depicted a brown pelican, swans, geese, ducks, hammerhead sharks, and sturgeon, although the latter two would not normally have been found in shallow waters.

San Estevan, Acoma, New Mexico, 1629-42

- Pueblo is filled with dwellings ranging from one to two stories, all fashioned in adobe (mud-brick) - a Spanish Franciscan friar named Juan Ramirez directed the construction of the church in 1629 - the Franciscans are mendicant friars (a religious order where the monks take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and depend on charity for their livelihood) that helped to convert the peoples of modern-day New Mexico beginning in the sixteenth century - the practice of building missions for the purpose of conversion began soon after Spaniards defeated the Mexica (often called the Aztecs) in their capital city of Tenochtitlan (what is today Mexico City) in 1521 -the church of San Esteban del Rey is based on missionary churches found in Colonial Mexico - combines local Indigenous techniques and architectural elements -because it was the first mission built in New Mexico, it became the model for many others erected in this area

Scipio Moorhead, Phillis Wheatley, 1773

- The earliest significant black fine artist was an African slave. - Scipio Moorhead (fl. 1773), a poet and painter, was owned by Reverend John Moorhead from Boston. - Scipio was taught to draft and paint by Moorhead's wife, Sarah, an artist and teacher. - Well-known in Boston as an artist, Scipio was commissioned by Phillis Wheatley, the first African American to publish a book of poems, to execute the portrait that appears here. - taken from the frontispiece of her book, the image is actually an etching of the original by Moorhead. - His ink drawing of Wheatley sitting at a writing table with a contemplative upward gaze typical of portraits of the era, a quill pen poised over a sheet of paper, an open book and inkwell on the desk, brought praise from Wheatley, who included in her collection a poem in honor of the artist, "To S. M. a young African Painter, on seeing his Works."

Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe, 1770

- painting by Anglo-American artist Benjamin West depicting the death of British General James Wolfe at the 1759 Battle of Quebec during the French and Indian War (which was the North American theater of the Seven Years' War). - It is an oil on canvas of the Enlightenment period. The Death of General Wolfe depicts the Battle of Quebec, also known as the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, on September 13, 1759. This was a pivotal event in the Seven Years' War and decided the fate of France's colonies in North America

Old Ship Meetinghouse, Hingham, Ma, 1681 (1731, 1755)

- served two purposes: as a Meeting House where civic issues of the day were discussed, and as a place of worship on Sundays - lively debates over the Revolution, the form American Democracy would take, and local issues such as property taxes, have taken place under its distinctive timber roof - architecturally, the Meeting House is an example of Elizabethan Gothic style found in the early settlers native Hingham, England - the great curved timbers that support the roof were cut from bowed oak limbs grown in local forest. Axe hewn, no two are exactly alike in dimension - although it's still a mystery, the name Old Ship may have been inspired by the unusual roof structure, which resembles the hull of a ship

John Smibert, The Bermuda Group: Dean George Berkeley and his Family, 1729

- the Bermuda Group commemorated an ambitious venture to found a seminary in Bermuda. -frustrated with what he saw as a corrupt European civilization, the philosopher and Anglican cleric George Berkeley (far right) believed that only in the New World would a religious and cultural rebirth be possible. - his patron, John Wainright (seated), commissioned the artist John Smibert (standing left), whom Berkeley had hired to teach at the new college, to create this portrait of the expeditionary party, which included two additional wealthy supporters and members of Berkeley's family. - when the seminary project failed for lack of funds, Berkeley's entourage returned to England, but Smibert moved to Boston and established himself as America's first professional painter.

Anonymous, Portrait of John Freake, c. 1671-4 oil on canvas

- these portraits of a wealthy Bostonian and his wife and daughter (the youngest of their eight children) are among the most important of the relatively small number that survive from the late seventeenth century in New England - a half-dozen portraits painted in Boston during the 1670s can be attributed to the same anonymous artist, who gave greater attention to costume than to the characterization of the individuals. - the colonial painter's deliberate, decorative style shows his awareness of a tradition in British portraiture that derives ultimately from late sixteenth-century iconic representations of Elizabeth I - research on the sitters and technical examination of the portraits support a theory that the artist updated the Freakes' portraits in about 1674, shortly after he first painted them. It was then that the baby was added and details in costume were changed, probably to reflect current fashion. -while little is revealed of the sitters' personalities in these portraits, their personal effects do denote the social and economic status of a prominent merchant and attorney and his family

John Singleton Copley, A Boy with a Flying Squirrel (Henry Pelham), 1765, oil on canvas

-a portrait of the artist's half-brother, Henry Pelham - more accurate to consider this painting as a tangible demonstration of the artist's skill -from the beginning, Copley intended this painting not for a wall in a Boston parlor, but instead for the wall of a London exhibition space. -It is, as such, as much about what Copley could do as an artist as it is about the likeness of Henry Pelham. He looks to left side of the composition as if dreamily lost in thought. The first thing a viewer might notice is that Copley has beautifully framed his half-brother's face in front of a vibrant red curtain. Pelham wears a dark frock coat that is embellished with a pink satin collar. The yellow vest underneath his coat largely obscures his white shirt, although the collar and cuffs brilliantly contrast with the pink and dark blue of his coat. Copley has taken particular care to show the play of light and shadow across these garments. Note the ruffles in his cuffs, the ripples across his pink collar, and the shadows underneath the vest's buttonholes. Clearly Copley was pulling out all of the artistic stops for this composition.

Justus Englehardt Kuhn, Henry Darnall iii, c. 1710

-the earliest known portrait of an African American in colonial - Kühn (d. 1717) was a German immigrant to the Annapolis area in the first decade of the eighteenth century - he offered his Maryland clients the fantasy of European-style grandeur. -he portrayed Henry Darnall, son of one of Maryland's wealthiest families, as a young aristocrat of imperious mien - Darnall's world is defined by his possessions, from his richly embroidered jacket and flowing green tunic (an allusion to classical portraiture) to the idealized garden on the other side of the balustrade - no such garden existed in the colonies in 1710. The garden's tight geometry, instead, represents a fantasy of an ordered, stable, and hierarchical world linked to class privilege and property ownership. - Kühn thus takes a young provincial from the New World and portrays him as an assured member of a transatlantic aristocracy. -Darnall's black slave, in turn, attends his master from behind and below, fenced by the balustrade. -the silver shackle around his neck indicates his status as property. -the artist seems less interested in the slave as a person than in his fine attire, concerned that the domestic slave of an elite family must appear outfitted for the role. -accordingly, as young Darnall sports the weapons of the hunt, amusing himself, as a young gentleman should, with leisurely and aristocratic pursuits, his slave admires him.

Jean-Antoine Houdon, George Washington, 1788-1792

After the successful conclusion of the American Revolutionary War, many state governments turned to public art to commemorate the occasion. Given his critical role in both Virginia and the colonial cause, it is unsurprising that the Virginia General Assembly desired a statue of George Washington for display in a public space. And so, in 1784, the Governor of Virginia asked Thomas Jefferson (another Virginian who was then in Paris as the American Minister to France) to select an appropriate artist to sculpt Washington. Seeking a European sculptor—and for Jefferson, whose Francophile sympathies were clear, preferably one who was French—was a logical decision given the lack of artistic talent then available in the United States. Through basic necessity, this portrait of an American hero needed to be made by a foreigner. In time, this statue of George Washington has become one of the most recognized and copied of images of the first president of the United States. Houdon did not just perfectly capture Washington's likeness (John Marshal, the second Chief Justice of the Supreme Court later wrote, "Nothing in bronze or stone could be a more perfect image than this statue of the living Washington"). Houdon also captured the essential duality of Washington: the private citizen and the public solider.

Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, near Charlottesville, va, 1770-82, 1796-1809

Although never formally trained as an architect, Jefferson, both while a student and then later in life, expressed dissatisfaction with the architecture that surrounded him in Williamsburg, believing that the Wren-Baroque aesthetic common in colonial Virginia was too British for a North American audience. Rather than place his plantation house along the bank of a river—as was the norm for Virginia's landed gentry during the eighteenth century—Jefferson decided instead to place his home, which he named Monticello (Italian for "little mountain") atop a solitary hill just outside Charlottesville, Virginia.

Julian Scott, Surrender of a Confederate Soldier, 1873

At the age of fifteen, Julian Scott lied about his age to enlist in the Union army. He rose from drummer boy to infantryman, and for his service he earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. After his discharge he became an artist, initially focusing on images of heroic moments of sacrifice during the war.He painted this Confederate soldier with dignity. The raised white flag is simultaneously a surrender of the individual, his family, the Confederate cause, and the Southern way of life. The soldier's wife cradles their infant child, while the enslaved man with them looks away, perhaps envisioning the changes in his own future. Scott imbued this work with respect for his Confederate counterpart, sounding a hopeful note for the future.

Raphaelle Peale, Blackberries, ca. 1813

Born to America's premier artistic family of the time, Raphaelle Peale is acknowledged by many to be the first painter in the United States to specialize in the genre of still life. Peale is most known for painting small, intimate pictures of fruit, dessert, and other comestible offerings on tables placed invitingly close to the viewer's space, and meant to inspire contemplation rather than unlimited appetite. Isolated and intensely illuminated against an austere, darkened background, Peale's blackberries appear very real, at once both modest and glisteningly vital. Their compact, beaded forms in different degrees of ripeness seem to float in bunches over the linearity of the verdant, striated leaves. American still life painting would have been understood by its 19th-century public to convey a host of moral, if not religious, associations. Some viewers might have interpreted the juicy red berries as evoking explicit Christian symbolism, such as the blood of Christ, and the visible thorniness of the wooden stem as Christ's crown of thorns. Others might respond to the still life's apparent suggestion of moderation and temperance as exemplary virtues.

John Trumbull, The Death of General Joseph Warren at The Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775, 1786

Called in his day the "patriot-artist," John Trumbull served in the Continental Army from 1775 to 1777 and became known for his images of the Revolutionary War—a prime source of material for contemporary history paintings. After resigning his commission, he went to London to study with Benjamin West, returning to the United States with the plan to immortalize the country's struggle for independence in a series of paintings based on the critical events of the conflict and thus create to a new iconography for the new nation. He ultimately completed eight compositions, and in 1817 Congress awarded him a commission for four large canvases to decorate the United States Capitol. Warren's heroism immediately captured the imagination of the American public. He was so idolized that in the decade following his death there were more towns and streets named after him than after George Washington.

Charles Willson Peale, The Artist in His Museum, 1822

Charles Willson Peale, an important American artist who bridged the 18th and 19th centuries, depicted himself in old age lifting a curtain to reveal his newly-opened gallery in Philadelphia. It was the first public museum in the United States and exhibited paintings alongside specimens of natural history such as the partly-hidden skeleton of a mastodon. And while this picture is clearly promotional and self-promotional, it is also poetic using themes and methods that have been central to art for many centuries. Among them are the androgynous and fertile nature of the creative mind, the pursuit of ageless wisdom and the associated symbolism of the female breast which, though well-hidden here, is crucial to its meaning.

Thomas Cole, View From Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a thunderstorm (the oxbow), 1836

Cole responded with a landscape that lauds the uniqueness of America by encompassing "a union of the picturesque, the sublime, and the magnificent." Although often ambiguous about the subjugation of the land, here the artist juxtaposes untamed wilderness and pastoral settlement to emphasize the possibilities of the national landscape, pointing to the future prospect of the American nation. Cole's unequivocal construction and composition of the scene, charged with moral significance, is reinforced by his depiction of himself in the middle distance, perched on a promontory painting the Oxbow. He is an American producing American art, in communion with American scenery. There are both sketchbook drawings with annotations and related oil sketches of this subject. Many other artists copied or imitated the painting.

Benjamin Franklin, Magna Britannia: Her Colonies Reduc'd, c. 1766 engraving

Designed by Franklin, and drawn and engraved by an unknown artist, this cartoon was distributed by Franklin among his London associates as part of his campaign to have the Stamp Act repealed. The engraving depicts Britannia as a young woman, lying on a desolate shore, propped against a globe. A shield and spear lie on the ground beside her. Her arms and legs, each labeled as a major colonial center (New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia) have been hacked off and are strewn around. A tree stump stands on the shore, and three vessels are anchored in the distance. The card is mounted on a sheet of paper. Inscribed on the paper, surrounding the card on all four sides, is a double line of red ink, as a frame. Written on the paper in red ink above the mounted card is the following: "NORTH AMERICA / November the First MDCCXV." Written below the card is the description: "The Original Print done in England on the back of a Message Card. The / Invention and for the use of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ESQ: LLD. Agent for / the Province of Pennsylvania in London." The moral he wished to convey is "that the Colonies may be ruined, but that Britain would thereby be maimed."

Thomas Eakins, The Gross Clinic, 1875

Dr. Samuel D. Gross, a seventy-year-old professor dressed in a black frock coat, lectures a group of Jefferson Medical College students. Included among the group is a self-portrait of Eakins, who is seated to the right of the tunnel railing, sketching or writing. Seen over Dr. Gross's right shoulder is the clinic clerk, Dr. Franklin West, taking notes on the operation. Eakins's signature is painted into the painting, on the front of the surgical table. Admired for its uncompromising realism, The Gross Clinic has an important place documenting the history of medicine—both because it honors the emergence of surgery as a healing profession (previously, surgery was associated primarily with amputation), and because it shows us what the surgical theater looked like in the nineteenth century. The painting is based on a surgery witnessed by Eakins, in which Gross treated a young man for osteomyelitis of the femur. Gross is pictured here performing a conservative operation as opposed to an amputation (which is how the patient would normally have been treated in previous decades).

William Sidney Mount, Farmers Nooning, 1836

Farmer's Nooning, an early work, is William Sidney Mount's most complex and ambitious painting. In its day, critics praised the work for its heroic depiction of the African American male and for Mount's avoidance of the use of stereotypical facial characteristics then associated with the race. Mount's preparatory oil sketch of this work shows that his initial intent was to draw the viewer's attention to the boy on the left sharpening his scythe; in the finished work, however, the artist focused on the sleeping man. The sparkling sun-filled realism of the composition resulted from the fact that Mount partially painted the work out-of-doors. In 1843, Farmer's Nooning was engraved and distributed throughout the nation via the Apollo association, one of the early lottery associations through which subscribers purchasing an engraved print had a chance to win an original work of art.

Frederic Church, Niagara Falls, 1857

Frederic Edwin Church was the most significant successor of Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School. Church's landscapes represented unsullied nature as an embodiment of his faith in the God-given strength and mission of the New World, "America's sacred destiny," as he put it. An example is Niagara Falls, an icon of American painting. The extremely wide format, the horseshoe shape of the falling masses of water, and the horizontal stretch of land in the background, visualizing the incredible extent of this natural wonder, lend the picture the monumentality of a gigantic panorama. The falls and the immense, untouched landscape become a natural symbol of the political energy of a people and nation devoted to making the world a better place to live in. The violet hue of the sky and the rainbow blur in the rising mists, conveying a sense of mystery that lends the natural motif a symbolic aspect.

George Catlin, Portrait of Máh-To-Tóh-Pa, Four bears, Second Chief in full dress, 1832

George Catlin described Four Bears, a chief of the Mandan tribe, as an "extraordinary man, though second in office, [he] is undoubtedly the first and most popular man in the nation. Free, generous, elegant and gentlemanly in his deportment---handsome, brave and valiant; wearing a robe on his back, with the history of his battles emblazoned on it; which would fill a book of themselves, if properly translated . . . Máh-to-tóh-pa had agreed to stand before me for his portrait at an early hour of the next morning . . . I looked out of the door of the wigwam, and saw him approaching with a firm and elastic step, accompanied by a great crowd of women and children, who were gazing on him with admiration, and escorting him to my room. No tragedian ever trod the stage, nor gladiator ever entered the Roman Forum, with more grace and manly dignity than did Máh-to-tóh-pa enter the wigwam, where I was in readiness to receive him." The artist painted this portrait at a Mandan village in 1832. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 1, nos. 13, 21, 1841; reprint 1973)

Gilbert Stuart, George Washington (Vaughan-Sinclair portrait), 1795-96

Gilbert Stuart is considered one of the most successful American portrait painters of the 18th century. Stuart staunchly believed that a successful portrait not only recorded a sitter's likeness, but also interpreted his or her character through its formal qualities. He was also a pioneer in bringing the brushy style of English portraiture to the United States. He was perhaps most famous for his many portraits of George Washington, one of which would be printed on the dollar bill in 1869.

George Caleb Bingham, Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, 1845

Having grown up in Missouri, Bingham had firsthand knowledge of the great river that rises near the Canadian border and joins the Mississippi at Saint Louis. To market their pelts, traders traveled downstream from the northern wilderness in dugout canoes; here, a bedraggled French trader paddles the humble craft, while his more cheerful son—who, as the original title made clear, was to be recognized as half-Indian—stands guard with a flat rifle. The scene is impenetrable and bewitched, marked by mist and silence. In fact, Bingham portrayed a form of trading long since outmoded, but the painting captivated Easterners, who saw it at the American Art-Union in New York City in 1845.

Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Banjo Lesson, 1893

In 1893 on a short return visit to the United States, Tanner painted his most famous work, The Banjo Lesson, while in Philadelphia. The painting shows an elderly black man teaching a boy, assumed to be his grandson, how to play the banjo. This deceptively simple-looking work explores several important themes. Blacks had long been stereotyped as entertainers in American culture, and the image of a black man playing the banjo appears throughout American art of the late 19th century. These images are often reduced to a minstrel-type portrayal. Tanner painted a sensitive reinterpretation. Instead of a generalization, the painting portrays a specific moment of human interaction. The two characters concentrate intently on the task before them. They seem to be oblivious to the rest of the world, which enlarges the sense of real contact and cooperation. The skillfully painted portraits of the individuals make it obvious that these are real people and not types. In addition to being a meaningful exploration of human qualities, the piece is masterfully painted. Tanner undertakes the difficult endeavor of portraying two separate and varying light sources. A natural white, blue glow from outside enters from the left while the warm light from a fireplace is apparent on the right. The figures are illuminated where the two light sources meet; some have hypothesized this as a manifestation of Tanner's situation in transition between two worlds, his American past and his newfound home in France.

Mary Cassatt, At the Opera (In the Loge), 1879

In nineteenth century France, the gaze of the observer—whether on Napoleon's grand new boulevards or in the opera—was very much structured by issues of economic status. Mary Cassatt's remarkable painting In the Loge (c. 1878-79) clearly shows the complex relationship between the gaze, public spectacle, gender, and class privilege. Cassatt was a wealthy American artist who had adopted the style of the Impressionists while living in Paris. Here she depicts a fashionable upper-class woman in a box seat at the Paris opera (as it happens, the sitter is Cassatt's sister, Lydia). Lydia is shown holding opera glasses up to her eyes; but instead of tilting them down, as she would if she were watching the performance below, her gaze is level. She peers straight across the chamber perhaps at another member of the audience. Look closely and you will notice that, in turn, and in one of the boxes across the room, a gentleman is gazing at her. Lydia is then, in a sense, caught between his gaze and ours even as she spies another.

Eastman Johnson, A Ride for Liberty - The Fugitive Slaves, c. 1862

In this composition, Eastman Johnson portrayed an enslaved family charging for the safety of Union lines in the dull light of dawn. The absence of white figures in this liberation subject makes it virtually unique in art of the period—these African Americans are independent agents of their own freedom. Johnson claimed to have based the painting on an actual event he witnessed near the Manassas, Virginia, battlefield on March 2, 1862, just days before the Confederate stronghold was ceded to Union forces.

Thomas Cole, The Falls of Kaaterskill, 1826

Kaaterskill Falls cascades through the center of the painting, while shafts of sunlight illuminate a rocky ledge, framed by red and gold autumnal trees. A single figure, a Native American, stands on top of an outcrop, profiled against the dark caverns in the cliff behind him. The effect feels spontaneous and timeless, capturing the beauty of the scene as a natural resource. Yet, trouble looms. The painting is composed as an inverted triangle: its apex sits at the break of the falls with diagonals along the rising slopes on either side to lead the viewer to the higher falls in the upper right. Beyond this, a dense row of pines stretches along the horizon, along with an anvil-shaped thundercloud that creates a sense of impending doom. Cole revisits a subject that had previously gained him fame with his Kaaterskill Upper Fall, Catskill Mountains (1825), painted after his first visit to the area. The region, known for its natural beauty, was viewed as a kind of natural Eden, yet, at the time of Cole's first visit, railings and a bridge had already been installed for the safety of the many tourists. In his depiction, however, Cole erased these manmade elements and included a Native American (even though the indigenous people had been driven from the area by this time) in an attempt to reverse time and preserve the original landscape for posterity.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold (The Falling Rocket), c. 1875

One might say that for some artworks, seeing beyond the artist's intention to form a more indefinite, personal interpretation is, ironically, the creator's ultimate objective after all. Much like Alice stepping tentatively through the two-dimensional plane of the looking glass into the possibilities beyond, the viewer is invited to deduce his own meaning, to form his own associations, thus essentially taking part in the creative process itself. While ambiguity is standard in the conceptual contemporary pieces of today, what mattered most in early American art was what could be read on the surface: narrative clarity, illusionistic detail, realism, and straightforward moral instruction. When did things change? Perhaps, it seems, around the time avant-garde artists began to pursue abstraction, flirt with modernism, and challenge the aesthetic standards of the past.

Fitz Henry Lane, Owl's Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine, 1862

Owl's Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine is probably Lane's best-known work. He greatly simplified a popular artistic motif—the idyllic harbor view—in virtually every detail. The viewer looks out onto a contemporary coastal town with its commercial traffic, but sees few props in the foreground and background that would preoccupy one with thoughts of daily affairs. Instead there is a single boatman gazing at a seemingly unpopulated bay. Lane recorded the distinctive profile of Owl's Head with its tiny lighthouse clearly silhouetted against the evening sky. Geometric clarity and simplicity set Lane's work apart from landscape scenes of the previous century. In Owl's Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine nature is a presence that envelops and transfixes the solitary boatman, but the picture that presents this vision retains the modest format and a bit of the decorative appeal of an earlier era.

Nathaniel Jocelyn, Cinque, 1839

Painted during the Amistad Rebellion , which occurred after the transatlantic slave trade was abolished 53 Africans were stolen by Portuguese traders and put on a ship called the "Amsted" to be sent to Cuba Sengbe Pieh "Cinque" broke out of his shackles and released the other slaves This is a painting of Cinque by an abolitionist artist while the trial took place Careful, observant, dignified portrait When the ship went aground, the slaves were jailed in New Haven They argued that they were free men illegally stolen John Quincy Adams represented the slaves Ultimately, the Supreme Court agreed, and the surviving men were returned to Sierra Leone Depicts subject in Africa, foreshadowing when he goes back to Africa He is holding sugarcane, which is evoking the quality of moses Painting to evoke slavery

George Bellows, Both Members of this Club, 1909

Painted in October 1909, the remarkably expressive and dynamic Both Members of This Club is the third and largest of George Bellows's early prizefighting subjects. The painting's title is a reference to the practice in private athletic clubs of introducing the contestants to the audience as "both members" to circumvent the Lewis Law of 1900 that had banned public boxing matches in New York State. Boxing was a controversial subject, but the interracial theme made this painting even more so, especially since the black boxer appears to be winning the match. It is likely that Bellows intended Both Members of This Club as an allusion to the recent and much-publicized success of the African American professional prizefighter Jack Johnson, who had won the world heavyweight championship in 1908. The idea of a black boxing champion was so unsettling to the prejudiced social order of the time that many thought interracial bouts should be outlawed. Painted at the height of the Jim Crow era, Bellows's powerful delineation of a white fighter about to be defeated by a black opponent was an exceptionally daring and provocative piece of social commentary.

John Vanderlyn, Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos, 1809-14

The artist's masterpiece, "Ariadne" was one of the most advanced paintings of its day - not to mention being one of the first nudes ever exhibited in this country. The sensual portrayal of a reluctant female recalls the High Renaissance Venuses of Giorgione and Titian. The accomplished sculptural treatment of the body and the precise, tightly finished brushwork also show Vanderlyn's mastery of the French academic tradition. Daughter of King Minos of Crete, Ariadne betrayed her family to help the Athenian prince Theseus slay the Minotaur, only to be abandoned by her faithless lover on the island of Naxos. Although Vanderlyn represents Ariadne before she became aware of her plight, educated viewers would know the story had a happy ending; captivated by the beauty of the sleeping princess, Dionysus, god of wine, made her his bride.

Alexander Gardner, Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg, 1863

The image represents the tragic aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg (which caused the largest number of casualties of the entire war) by focusing on a single dead solider lying inside what Gardner called a "sharpshooter's den." Later analysis revealed that he had staged the image to intensify its emotional effect. Though this practice was not uncommon at the time, its discovery made the photograph the subject of controversy. Gardner moved the soldier's corpse and propped up his head so that it faced the camera. He then placed his own rifle next to the body, emphasizing the soldier's horizontality and the cause of his death. Photography was still a relatively new invention in the mid-19th century, and the Civil War was one of the first conflicts to be documented. Because the process of taking and developing photographs at this time was lengthy and labor-intensive, early war photographers were limited to capturing campsites, military preparations, or the aftermath of battles. The action itself happened too rapidly for their cameras to be able to record.

William Harnett, The Old Violin, 1886

The public was fascinated by The Old Violin, the somber trompe l'oeil still life created by William Harnett in 1886. People would reach out to touch the violin or try to grasp the envelope to determine if the objects were real or painted. Thanks to a widely distributed chromolithograph, The Old Violin would become an icon of American art, inspiring a group of illusionist painters—including John F. Peto—to make their own versions. Harnett, the undisputed master of illusionism, made the violin and sheet music* the central images of his painting. The music, though torn and stained, glows with light. The two melodies—one from the popular opera La Sonnambula and the other Hélas Quelle Douleur—were admired by the middle class and were often used for instruction and home musicales. Harnett reused the sheet music Hélas Quelle Douleur in several works, including My Gems. The violin's white rosin suggests that while it is old and worn, it is still in use. Perhaps the musician has just played and hung the sheet music and violin (a 1724 "Cremona," the finest instrument in Harnett's large collection) on the battered door. The battered door, aging violin, and worn sheet music were metaphors for life's vicissitudes and the toll they take on us all. The vertical composition and the shallow space it created were essential to the trompe l'oeil (French for "to fool the eye") effect. By filling the entire canvas with the impenetrable door, Harnett put the objects directly before the viewer, preventing the eye from moving into the work. The sheet music curls forward out of the painting with the violin and bow suspended above it, seemingly beyond the picture surface. Harnett purposely crinkled the edge of the news clipping and envelope to tease people into thinking they were real: several people "attempted the removal of the newspaper scrap with their finger-nails."

Richard Caton Woodville, War News From Mexico, 1848

The young man in the center of a crowd in Richard Caton Woodville's War News From Mexico (1848) holds open a newspaper with his elbows up, but the paper is low enough that we can see the astonished look on his face. And the news itself? As the title indicates, this is a dispatch from the front of the Mexican-American War. United States troops entered Mexico City in 1848, bringing to an end a war that had begun in 1846 over a territorial dispute involving Texas. In the resulting Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico ceded half its territory to the United States, effectively concluding the U.S. program of westward expansion. To convey the characteristics of a Western outpost, the men gathered in the painting are shown standing on the porch of a building typical of the kind erected in the American frontier during the rush for territories in the early decades of the nineteenth century. In fact, the building serves multiple functions: it is both an "American Hotel" and post office, as indicated on the signs. While the building emulates in wood the style of stone classical structures found in Philadelphia or New York City, the artist has taken great care with the details to remind the viewer this is on the frontier: the wood is worn, and underneath the "post office" sign is tacked a recruitment notice asking for "Volunteers for Mexico!"

Charles Bird King, Young Omahaw, War Eagle, Little Missouri, and Pawnees, 1821, oil on canvas,

These Plains Indian chiefs were among many who traveled to Washington to meet with the president to negotiate their territorial rights with the government. At the White House, the Capitol, and in private homes, policymakers employed bribery, dazzle, and intimidation to win the cooperation of these men. In his Seventh Street studio, Charles Bird King painted their portraits, creating a gallery of allies in the government's plan to settle the Indian question peacefully. War Eagle wears a presidential peace medal, valued by Native Americans as a sign of status and worn on all formal occasions. The artist painted the chiefs with a war axe, blood-red face paint, and eagle feathers atop their heads, reinforcing the romantic image of Indians as savages. One Englishman, however, saw them differently. He described them as "men of large stature, very muscular, having fine open countenances, with the real noble Roman nose, dignified in their manners, and peaceful and quiet in their habits."

Thomas Ball, Emancipation Memorial, 1876 Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C.

Thomas Ball designed and sculpted the Emancipation Memorial, also known as the Freedman's Memorial, with a commission from the St. Louis Western Sanitary Commission. According to contemporary newspaper accounts, the fundraising drive began when a freed slave contributed five dollars from her first earnings to memorialize Lincoln when she heard of his assassination. The monument plaque heralds the fact that it was financed exclusively by freed slaves, but the management of the funds, selection of the design, and all oversight was handled by whites and was controversial from its inception. The memorial, with its kneeling slave at the feet of the Great Emancipator, was the focus of criticism. An African-American organization led by Henry Highland Garnet proposed an alternate memorial that would serve a practical purpose—the establishment of a school where freedmen could achieve an education—but funding for this purpose stalled when leading abolitionists argued for a more traditional and permanent monument. The memorial was dedicated in 1876 was Reconstruction coming to an end.

Winslow Homer, Prisoners from the Front, 1866

one of Homer's most famous and highly lauded paintings of the Civil War, a work that established his reputation. It represents an actual scene from the war in which a Union officer, Brigadier General Francis Channing Barlow (1834-1896), captured several Confederate officers on June 21, 1864. The background depicts the battlefield at Petersburg, Virginia. It is a scene without exciting action or schematic devices, yet a kind of nobility and emotional drama pervades the canvas. Homer expertly characterized the range of personalities involved in the war, from the young, uncertain boy being captured to the bearded old man, humbly submitting to his fate, to the proud challenging stance of the third man still dressed in Confederate uniform. We feel the tension between Barlow and the Confederated soldier, yet it never threatens the stability of the image. Homer seemed to emphasize the sense of unity and spirit of a nation acknowledging a new direction. General Barlow was not only a friend whom Homer had visited at the front at least once and probably more often than that, but was also "one of the most eminent" officers to survive the war. Barlow had a record of valorous military service in which, particularly, "he distinguished himself at the Wilderness by leading his division in the grand charge which resulted in the capture of the rebel General Ed. Johnson's entire division" - an incident of which Homer's painting can easily be considered a symbolic representation.