|

 |
Washington
Allston, United States, 1779-1843
Jason Returning to Demand His Father's Kingdom,
1807-1808
|
| |
| Washington
Allston is a seminal figure in the development of American
art after the American Revolution. Although he favored neoclassicism
while studying art abroad after his graduation from Harvard,
he abandoned such influences upon returning to the United
States. America's first Romantic artist, he explored a broad
range of subject matter, from landscape to portraiture. The
subject matter of the museum’s painting derives from
Allston's knowledge of classical sources, as well as a series
of designs on the same subject made by Jakob Asmus Carstens.
The heroic-size composition, which is geometrically ordered
around a central statue, remains incomplete. As the principal
figure of Jason was never executed, it is the figure of Jason's
uncle, Pelias, that dominates the composition. |
| |
 |
Charles
Bird King, United States, 1785-1862
Portrait of Julcee Mathla, A Seminole Chief, 1826
|
| |
| Although
Charles Bird King never visited a Native American village,
he painted more portraits from life of North American Indians
than almost any other artist of his time. Living and working
in Washington, DC, he was able to capture the likeness of
members of the various delegations of tribes who visited the
Capitol during a period of government negotiation of Native
American lands and rights. While he was never renowned for
great technical achievement, King received critical attention
for faithfully recording physical features and tribal costumes.
His skill as a sensitive portraitist is evident in this dignified
and fascinating portrait of the Seminole chief Julcee Mathla.
Although a large number of King's original paintings were
destroyed in an 1865 fire that ravaged the Smithsonian Institution's
art collection, many survive in his own replicas as well as
through painted copies and lithographs made by other artists
after King's originals. |
| |
 |
Rembrandt
Peale, United States, 1778-1860
General View of Niagara Falls, ca. 1831
|
| |
| Painted
during the Romantic period of American art, which saw an increased
interest in native landscape and scenery, Peale’s General
View of Niagara Falls is one of five views painted in
the autumn of 1831. By this time, the Falls had become a major
tourist attraction and a popular subject for artists. Peale,
always ambitious, was well aware of the importance of Niagara
Falls as a symbol of the country’s majesty, advanced
through contemporary literature and engravings. He clearly
hoped to capitalize on the popularity of the Falls; however,
not one of the five paintings was ever sold. Following the
Niagara studies, Peale all but abandoned landscape as a genre,
concentrating on portraiture, for which he achieved his greatest
fame. The oldest son in a family of painters, Peale remains
a seminal figure in the development of a fresh nineteenth-century
American aesthetic.
|
| |
 |
Albert
Bierstadt, United States, 1830-1902
Yosemite Valley, California, ca. 1863
|
| |
| German-born
Albert Bierstadt was raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
In his early twenties he went to study art in his native Düsseldorf.
In 1856 he left Düsseldorf and traveled through the Swiss
Alps. It is in his paintings of the Alps that Bierstadt first
captured the sublime grandeur of mountains. He returned to
the United States, where he pursued an even more imposing
scale in his Western vistas. His enterprising method of exhibiting
in which viewers were charged twenty-five cents to see the
work astounded the public. Bierstadt’s Western landscapes
of pristine and untouched nature fascinated his audience for
the best part of the 1860s. This work, probably a preliminary
study for one of his monumental canvases, was executed on
Bierstadt’s second trip to the American West. The study
was likely one of many quick oil sketches made for the artist’s
private use. Bierstadt used such sketches to gather information
about the angle of a scene or specific details about plants
and rocks.
|
|
|