Nineteenth-Century American Art PDF
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£ .4- BELVEDERETIBURONLIBRARY " "I A 3311111111 01946 3510 Nineteenth-Century American Art Barbara Groseclose Oxford HistoryofArt TitlesintheOxfordHistoryofArtseriesareup-to-date,fully-illustratedintroductions toawidevarietyofsubjectswrittenbyleadingexpertsintheirfield.Theywillappear regularly,buildingintoaninterlockingandcomprehensiveseries.Inthelistbelow publishedtitlesappearinbold. WESTERN ART EuropeanArchitecture Melanesian Art REFERENCE BOOKS ArchaicandClassical 1750-1890 MichaelO'Hanlon TheArtofArtHistory: GreekArt BarryBergdoll MesoamericanArt ACriticalAnthology RobinOsborne Modern Architecture CeceliaKlein DonaldPreziosi(ed.) Classical ArtfromGreece AlanColquhoun NativeNorthAmericanArt to Rome Contemporary JanetBerlo&cRuthPhillips MaryBeard&John Architecture Polynesianand Henderson AnthonyVidler MicronesianArt Imperial Romeand Architectureinthe AdrienneKaeppler ChristianTriumph UnitedStates South-EastAsianArt JasEisner DellUpton JohnGuy EarlyMedieval Art WORLD ART LawrenceNees WESTERN DESIGN AegeanArtand Late Medieval Art Twentieth-CenturyDesign VeronicaSekules Architecture & JonathanM.Woodham DonaldPreziosi Louise Artin Renaissance Italy Hitchcock American Design EvelynWelch EarlyArtandArchitecture JeffreyMeikle Northern EuropeanArt inAfrica Nineteenth-Century SusieNash PeterGarlake Design Art in Europe AfricanArt GillianNaylor 1500-1750 JohnPicton Fashion NigelLlewellyn ChristopherBreward ContemporaryAfrican Art Artin Europe OluOguibe WESTERN SCULPTURE 1700-1830 MatthewCraske African-AmericanArt Sculpture 1900-1945 SharonF.Patton AUrntitinedEuSrtaotpeesa1n8d1t5h-e70 Nineteenth-Century PSecnuellpotpuereCuSritnisce 1945 AnnBermingham AmericanArt AndrewCausey BarbaraGroseclose ModernArt 1851-1929 Twentieth-Century PHOTOGRAPHY RichardBrettell AmericanArt AfterModernArt ErikaDoss ThePhotograph 945-2000 GrahamClarke 1 Australian Art DavidHopkins AndrewSayers Photographyinthe WESTERN United States ARCHITECTURE ByzantineArt MilesOrvell RobinCormack GreekArchitecture Contemporary DavidSmall ArtinChina Photography CraigClunas RomanArchitecture THEMESANDGENRES East European Art JanetDelaine JeremyHoward LandscapeandWestern EarlyMedieval Ancient Egyptian Art Art Architecture MarianneEaton-Krauss MalcolmAndrews RogerStalley Medieval Architecture APratrtihnaIMnidtitaer SPhoretarraeirtWureest NicolaColdstream IslamicArt Artandthe New RenaissanceArchitecture ChristyAnderson IreneBierman Technology Baroqueand Rococo JapaneseArt Artand Film Architecture 1600-1750 Karen Brock Artand Science HilaryBallon Women in Art Oxford History ofArt Nineteenth-Century American Art Barbara Groseclose OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OXfORD UNIVERSITY PRESS GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford0x26dp Oxford NewYork Athens Auckland Bangkok Bombay Calcutta CapeTown DaresSalaam Delhi Florence HongKong Istanbul Karachi KualaLumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Mumbai Nairobi Paris SaoPaulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw andassociatedcompaniesinBerlin Ibadan OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries OxfordisatrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress ©BarbaraGroseclose2000 Firstpublished2000byOxfordUniversityPress Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withouttheproperpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress. WithintheUK,exceptionsareallowedinrespectofanyfairdealingfor thepurposeofresearchorprivatestudy,orcriticismorreview,aspermitted undertheCopvright,DesignandPatentsAct,1988,orinthecaseof reprographicreproductioninaccordancewiththetermsofthelicencesissuedby theCopyrightLicensingAgency.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutside thesetermsandinothercountriesshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove. Thisbookissoldsubjecttotheconditionthatitshallnot,bywayoftrade orotherwise,belent,re-sold,hiredoutorotherwisecirculatedwithout thepublisher'spriorconsentinanyformofbindingorcoverotherthan thatinwhichitispublishedandwithoutasimilarconditionincluding thisconditionbeingimposedonthesubsequentpurchaser 0-19-284225-0(Pbk) 0-19-284282-x(Hbk) 987654321 10 BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloguing-in-PublicationData Groseclose,BarbaraS. Nineteenth-centuryAmericanart/BarbaraGroseclose. (Oxfordhistoryofart) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. 1. .Art,American2.Art,Modern-i9thcentury-UnitedStates.1.Title.11 Series. N6507.G76 2000 709'.73'o9034-dc2i 00-036751 isbn0-19-284225-0(Pbk) isbn0-19-284282-x(Hbk) TypesetbyPaulManning DesignbyJohn Saunders PictureresearchbyVirginiaStroud-Lewis Printedonacid-freepaperbyC6cCOffsetPrintingCo. Ltd Thewebsitesreferredtointhelistonpages217-220ofthisbookareinthepublicdomainand theaddressesareprovidedbyOxfordUniversityPressingoodfaithandforinformation only.OxfordUniversityPressdisclaimsanyresponsibilityfortheircontent. Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 The Profession oftheArtist 7 Chapter2 Portraiture 35 Chapter3 The Early Nineteenth Century: Democratic Models 6i Chapter4 The Late Nineteenth Century: DemocracyatWork 85 Chapter 5 Landscape 117 Chapter6 The American West 145 Chapter 7 Memoryand Myth: CommemorativeArt 173 Notes 119955 Timeline 204 Further Reading 2\0o7y ArtCollectionsand Websites 221177 PictureCredits 222211 Index 227 Acknowledgements I am grateful towhat seem to me the multitudes offriends and colleagues whohavehelpedmeinthepreparationofthisvolume,especiallythosewho read portions ofthe manuscript or advised me on its content: Steve Conn, Lisa Florman, Barbara Haeger, Ruth Melville, Steve Melville, Arline Meyer, Melissa Wolfe, Eva Heisler, Melissa Dabakis, Sarah Burns, Erika Doss, Vivien Fryd, Ann Abrams, Rebecca Zurier, Katherine Manthorne, William Gerdts, Sally Webster, Patricia Hills, Joy Kasson, graduate stu- dents in the seminar on war and memory that Steve Conn and I taught, and, above all, Simon Mason. I am indebted, as always, to Catherine Wolner. Barbara Grosedose Introduction MarkTwain (1835-1910), rantingas usualatatriflewhile takingaim at a much larger target, corrected a French writer who dared to assert knowledgeof'theAmericansoul': Thereisn'tasinglehumancharacteristicthatcanbesafelylabeled'American. Thereisn'tasinglehumanambition, orreligioustrend,ordriftofthought, or peculiarityofeducation,orcodeofprinciples,orbreedoffolly,orstyleofcon- versation, orpreference foraparticular subjectfordiscussion, orformoflegs ortrunkorheadorfaceorexpressionorcomplexion,orgait,ordress,orman- ners, ordisposition, oranyotherhumandetail, inside oroutside, thatcanra- tionallybegeneralizedasAmerican'. l I imagine Twain would have included art in his list ifhe'd thought aboutit. Now, I am notbeginningthis bookbyannouncingthatthere isnoAmericanpaintingandsculpture,butItakehispoint: 'Whenever you have foundwhat seems to be an "American" peculiarity, you have onlyto cross afrontierortwo, orgo downorup inthe socialscale, and you perceive that it has disappeared. And you can cross the Atlantic andfinditagain.' Twain notwithstanding, a single concern preoccupied artists and audiences for thevisual arts in the United States from the close ofthe War ofIndependence in 1783 rightup untilTwainwrote his harangue in 1895: is the work American? Avid viewers inspected paintings and sculptures, seeking American' qualities. Critics, historians, andjour- nalists proclaimed the necessity of fostering an American style and subject matter. Yet there was little unanimity ofthought. As Twain knew,whatis American' cannotbe pinned down to alistorlimited to geography. Nineteenth-CenturyAmericanArtoffers an account ofpainting and sculpture in terms that consider their aesthetics amid political, social and economic contexts. From this angle, whatever might be under- stoodbythetermAmerican art'constantlyshifts andre-forms,—atem- poral fluiditywhich, when added to regionalvariations, defies or at — leastinflects anyover-archingdefinitionofAmerican'.IwishIcould have been more true toTwain's insights aboutregionalism myself, but in this bookI have addressed the local onlyglancingly, though always awareofitspowertopulverizethe monolith'American'. Conversely,Twain's claim thatone may cross theAtlantic and find [anAmerican quality] again', resonates throughout. IfI recognize the embeddedness of things American within their predominant European heritage, I also reconfigure the prevailing dichotomous reading ofthe European-American cultural interchange with one in whichthatinterchange is understoodtobe adialogue, continuous and salutary,ratherthananintermittentlyvaluablebutinherentlycrippling obstacle to theformationofanationalart.Thereadershouldnotinfer from this statement an absence of other cultures in the shaping of American art. Asian,Mexican, African, andNativeAmerican arts in- fluencewhathas been takentobe mainstreamAmerican artindiverse ways, thoughnoneheldsopervasiveagriponits developmentnorwas so thoroughly conceded as European art. As African-American and NativeAmericanartsintheUnitedStateshavealreadybeenpublished asvolumesinthisseries,theyarenot(withafewexceptions) addressed herein. The relevance of the art discussed in this book vis-a-vis African- andNativeAmericans as subjects, ontheotherhand, is inte- graltowhatithasmeantforsomethingtobeAmerican'art. Mynarrative also spotlights the cultural and socialworkAmerican art did in the United States duringthe nineteenth century. It is abur- den on artto matter, and all the greaterwhen one realizes thisworkis not all the same nor the same all the time. Like-with-like offers the best model for such an investigation, so the chapters are, generally, governedbysubjectcategoryanddevelopedchronologically. Take, for example, the dominance ofportraiture after the United States gained independence: how did that art evolve stylistically, in content, and function, alongside the newcountry's own social and economic devel- opment?Whatthings remainedthe same?Whatspecialrequirements did an American situation impose? (These points are addressed in Chapter 2.) Other chapters pose similar questions. How were artists trained andwhat individuals, commercial developments, and institu- tions were significant, and significant in whatway, and how did they change? (See Chapter 1.) How was genre painting, with its scenes of ordinarypeopleineverydaylife,informedbyconstantlymodifyingno- tionsofpoliticalandsocialdemocracy,orviceversa(Chapters3 and4)? Why, how, under what conditions, and at what moments does land- scape serve as the epitome ofAmerican art history and/or American art(Chapters5and6)?Howandwhydoesartinscribethemythsofna- tionhood on memory in history painting and commemorative sculp- ture, and when do these things become impo—rtant? (See Chapter 7.) This history, inotherwords, is notthehistory itcontainshistories. I amengagedthroughoutbycriticalandphilosophicalunderstand- ings ofart that practise alertness to the ways in which social history 2 INTRODUCTION — — mightbeimplicated ornot inthe making, meaning, andreception ofartandarthistory.Whatmaynotbe asreadilyapparentistheselec- tion criteria for objects that raise the issues I address. Whatever one's theoretical or methodological orientation, it is evident that art his- tory's current centre, the so-called new art histories, encompasses works of art from a repertoire larger (in regard to authorship) and looser (in regard to aesthetic strictures) than was previously the case. Although in s—ome other fields it dominates the discussion, questions of canonicity which usually means no—t only what the canon is or shouldbe, butalsowhyandhowitexists hoverontheperipheries of American arthistory, an inspiration insteadofa criticalpractice. This situationreinforces,butdoesnotdirect, thechoiceofpaintings, sculp- tures, andpopulargraphic arts addressedinthisbook.2 I have included here discussion of both familiar and less well- knownworks ofart. AtriskofflatteningthefieldwhenwhatIwantto do is offer a differentviewpoint, I have been selective in the range of artistsandworksofartbroughtintothetext,whichitselfisconstrained bytheseries'norm.ThorniestofallhasbeenthequestionofAmerican artists abroad. Expatriates whose works were intended exclusivelyfor American markets, like Richard Caton Woodville (1825-55), or wno spent considerable time in the States, like John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), are included. But painters like Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) andJames McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), whose art was formed and produced entirelywithin aframeworkabroad andonlypartiallyorbe- latedlyseeninAmerica,belongtoadifferentstory. Somebackgroundonthe newarthistories' maybe helpfultoread- ers. Feministarthistorychieflyaccounts fortherecentturn awayfrom the individual genius/masterwork case study and, following a much oldertraditionofsocialhistory, concomitantperspectives thatempha- size societal (institutional) circumstances in the production ofart. In 1971, Linda Nochlin asked, 'Why have there been no great women artists?' SheexposedthedisadvantagesunderwhichEuropeanwomen artists laboured in the academywhen obliged bydecorum and bias to forego study ofthe nude model. Her examination ofan institutional 'detail'was notintended, shewrote, toproduce adefinitive answerto a question ofstaggeringproportions, noreven to suggest a rationale for women's'failure'butrather'toprovideaparadigmfortheinvestigation ofotherareasinthefield'.3 Given the sea change in art history since Nochlin wrote these words, one is forced to ask, the 'field' ofwhat? Genderstudies, among other things, track the discursive formation ofgender for its institu- tional and ideological consequences in art. Anthropology shades into — arthistoryinstudies oftheconstructionofalterity, inwhich particu- — larly in American art the racial 'other' is imagined, imaged, con- fronted, or accommodated. Art-historical practices exert pressure on INTRODUCTION 3 whatisperceivedbysometobethediscipline'sbasisbyquestioningnot onlythe canon's formationbuttheverypossibilityofacanon; andcul- tural studies challenge the binaryformulation high-low, interrogating thewholeofculturalproductionas'signifyingpractice'. Emerging at the same time that the critic Raymond Williams gained adherents in the United States, and sharing some ofhis and otherMarxists' concernswith cultural constructions and hegemonies, feminist writers destabilized art history and helped give birth to its current state ofpolytheorization. (Indeed, I should make it clear that there is not one 'feminism' but many feminisms, and these in turn sometimes share interests ofother cultural projects.) The ideological andinstitutionalshapeofarthistory,deconstructed,revealedwhatfor- merlyconstituted thegivensofart and its history, such as the practice ofcollectingand display, orthe interaction ofthe artistwith the social controls aswellas the economics ofthe marketplace. Suchtopics have movedinto the art-historicalspotlight, informingand contestingpre- conditionednotionsofthe artobjectandits makers. One feature of'newarthistories' thatI particularlywelcome has to do with awillingness to avoid closure, which, though sometimes un- settling to the reader, emphasizes tensions and contradictions within both representation andinterpretation. Complaints that easy-to-read texts convey the sense that the material under discussion is tidy or transparentareasresponsivetotheproblemsof'new'arthistoryinthis regard as rejections ofdense writing. Tidiness, I think, has to do not onlywithmeaningbutwith'voice'aswell, andbringsup another'new' goal: to reduce the impression surveys frequently deliver ofa single, omniscient, authoritative Text. For me, this cuts two ways: self-con- sciousness about myown construction ofhistory, in this Introduction and throughout the text; and attention to the constructedness ofthe histories onwhichI draw, andtowhichI ambeholden. 4 INTRODUCTION
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