By: Martin Davis

Partner: Robin Copple

ART- AMERICAN VISUALS 1800-1850

ART IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES• Art in the 18th and 19th centuries continued its evolution, however, American artists in the

colonies at the time “favored naturalism and Romanticism over older neoclassical styles and subject matter.”

• Art, and painting specifically had been of monarchs or heroes, or of plants or birds.

• Art in the colonies began to come away from this idea of art, and began to focus, in a very slow transition, more on the background, usually the nature, behind the main focus of the picture.

• Naturalism and realism began to sculpt the view of art in the colonies.

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ART IN THE 18TH TH CENTRY• Another notable trait about art in the 18h

century is that very little exists. Most of what we know about early 18 th century painting comes from Phillip Georg Friedrich von Reck’s watercolors of early Georgia and his trips there.

• Much of the art in the era was similar or in this style.

Picture http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/media_content/m-8002.jpghttp://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3340

Picture: A watercolor of a watermelon by von Reck

THE 19TH CENTURY• Gradually, paintings began to become more landscape.

• English-born painter John Abbot began to paint more realistic pictures of elements in nature, such as birds and insects.

• Landscapes became tremendously popular after the war of 1812 in what is known as the antebellum period.

• Painters such as English-born Joshua Shaw began to flock to the country. With its picturesque lands, America was the perfect place for a landscaper.

• Landscapers such as Thomas Addison Richards came to America and began to fill up their sketchbooks with pictures of “sublime images of the landscape.”

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RIVER PLANTATION- THOMAS ADDISON RICHARDS- 1855

• Painting began to feature the landscape, instead of the people.

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BRITISH ART• While colonial art and British art used to be similar, they were now making a separation.

• Artist such as Henry John Yeend, continued to paint in a style that focused on the person, not the landscape.

• British paintings also tended to show a groomed appearance of nature, a garden, or a yard, while in American paintings nature was typically shows in its natural state.

EXAMPLES OF BRITISH ART

• http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zzbauV98H3o/Te4orf9GHpI/AAAAAAAAo04/_-8KQ95HSdw/s1600/d%2BHenry%2BJohn%2BYeend%2BKing%2B%2528British%2Bartist%252C%2B1855-1924%2529.jpg

DETAILS• This piece, by Henry John Yeend (1825-1924), reflects the conservative painting values

that most British painters had.

• The woman is the main focal point of the picture, and all other surrounding are simply there to increase the beauty of her. They are a background that is meant to enhance her.

WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE

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Painted by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze

• The Monroe documents and the War of 1812 created a huge surge of American nationalism (Brands 254).

• Although Washington crossing the Delaware was painted in 1851, this was still a run over from this period.

• Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, who painted this picture of Washington, was traditionally a painter who portrayed European styles, showed how American art had influences him, and painted a picture that featured more of a background than normal for him.

A TRADITIONAL EMANUEL GOTTLIEB LEUTZE PAINTING

BIBLIOGRAPHY• Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought. New York: Oxford University Press,

2007. Myilibrary. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://lib.myilibrary.com/

Open.aspx?id=227069&loc=&srch=undefined&src=0>.

• "The United States and Canada, 1800–1900 A.D.". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=10®ion=na (October 2004)

• Kennedy, M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant. 12th ed. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. Print.

• "The American Landscape." Resource for Educators. N.p., 7 Nov. 2011. Web. 9 Nov.

2011. <http://www.historichudsonvalley.org/education/LessonPlans/

Landscape/landscape.html>.

BIBLIOGRAPHY• "The American Landscape." Resource for Educators. N.p., 7 Nov. 2011. Web. 9 Nov.

2011. <http://www.historichudsonvalley.org/education/LessonPlans/

Landscape/landscape.html>.

• ”Paintings of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century." The Arts. N.p., 7 Nov. 2011. Web. 9 Nov. 2011. <http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3340>.

• ”Students of Benjamin West." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. N.p., 7 Nov. 2011. Web. 9 Nov. 2011. <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bwst/hd_bwst.htm>.