America’s grand wilderness was captured through the beautiful painting style of romanticism originating in the Hudson River School of Art. Artists followed the movement of romanticism, to use it in recording the expansion of U. S. territories. Romanticism was started in the Hudson River School, New York. Romanticism played with lighting concepts and dramatic landscapes which were visually appealing and intrigued its viewers. The Hudson River School painted the untouched nature of America. Most artists, like Frederic Remington, George Catlin, and Albert Bierstadt were inspired by the huge panoramas that portrayed the spirit of America. Artists from the prestigious school went west and painted the grand scenery they encountered. The westward …show more content…
Artist, Frederic Remington was a painter and sculptor who had many subjects for his art like native americans, cavalry officers, and horses. His paintings promoted the westward expansion where one could find freedom in exploring the vast open areas of unknown America’s wilderness. His style and images depicted strength, courage, perseverance, and adventure to reflect the current attitude of the Westward movement. George Catlin was another important artist of the West, as a young boy growing up in Pennsylvania was fascinated by native americans by finding arrow head artifacts and listening to tales of his mom being captured by Indians. Later in life, he traveled for 8 years where he met 48 Native American tribes and produced more than 500 paintings of native americans in full regalia. His work was done in watercolors and oils to record the tribes he met. He didn’t believe in the saying, “the only good Indian is a dead Indian”(Harold McCracken, pg. 13). The Hudson River School member, Albert BIerstadt was a painter who used luminism, a type of romanticism to brighten up his paintings yet still have a rugged appeal. He caught the public’s eye and opened up the West as full of opportunities for exploration. His grand scale landscapes of the West were painted using an abundance of detailed lighting to capture …show more content…
The Hudson River School artists through their imagery, depicted a country of extensive natural resources, spacious and natural beauty. This movement of romanticism popularized the idea of the acquisition of land for use by the people. It symbolized America’s vitality, independence, and the beauty in our untouched nature. The Louisiana Purchase allowed for expansion and was a hard to resist temptation for artists/settlers. This promised hope for all who settled in the West with a new start. Their magnificent works of art acted like the lense of a camera to show what defined the look of the West. Frederic Remington painted to the demeanor of the West to accompany all the exploration that happened in the Westward Expansion. As well as Albert Bierstadt, who created the new image of the West with detail, dramatic lighting, and the imagination of the 19th century. George Catlin recorded the Native Americans and their ways as less intimidating and respectable to invite people. All of the artists during the Westward Movement had celebrated the impressiveness of the American landscape and Romanticism that brought elegance, illumination within the Hudson River School produced a new expression, that is still displayed within our Oval Office today to symbolize the art that impacted our Westward
She identifies that Caitlin saw it as an opportunity to show the audience the entertaining Wild West but also to assure people of the vanishing Indian threat. Some of the main work in the gallery (Portraits of Black Hawk and Osceola) were of leaders that lived east of the Mississippi, not in fact western like the Mandan’s. They were also imprisoned and not the free and wild men that Catlin was expressing. As Hight identifies the portrait of Osceola had a large impact in how his Indian paintings and gallery influenced the Indian Policy. Osceola died shortly after the portrait was drawn and was very sick while it was done. The portrait of him was depicted as a strong and healthy man when in fact he was the opposite. This supported that idea of the Vanishing Race Theory Through this observation Hight identifies that this was seen as entertainment and could make a large
The naissance of the Hudson River School style launched a new era of artwork. Thomas Cole started this school and it was because of him American landscape painting came of age with the success. This was the first school of painting in the United States. Located in Northern New York by the Hudson River, the paintings focused on the nature and wilderness of the surrounding area. The Hudson River Painters believed that nature was a direct manifestation of God. As such, nature was to be depicted as accurately and as detailed as possible. If a man was included in a painting at all, he was painted small in stature to emphasize his relationship to nature (God). Because nature was considered perfect, the Hudson River Painters attempted to draw and paint landscapes directly, not from memory or imagination, and without embellishments or contrivances. The American landscape, wild and unspoiled, became a great source of national pride. The museums and galleries now focused on American art rather than European art for the first time. Importantly, the school helped make Manifest Destiny a popular idea, and thus contributed to western expansion.
These particular journeys would be featured as a two part series on the victims of manifest destiny. The beginning part of the first episode should discuss the theory of manifest destiny, opening with George Berkeley’s “Verses on the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America.” The last two lines of the poem should be emphasized as it discusses “…Westward the course of empire takes its way. The first four Acts already past, a fifth shall close the Drama with the day; time 's noblest offspring is the last.” This particular poem inspired Americans to claim land westward, as well as different painters to depict such action such as: Thomas Cole and Emmanuel Leutze. Leutze painted a picture with the title “Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way.” This poem also depicts America as the last great civilization. It also reflects the ideas of the people during this time period. This idea Americans starting to move westward was depicted in the painting by Leutze. The painting ...
In order to study and understand American Indian art, one must also be familiar with their customs and beliefs. Many of the artworks have fabulous stories behind them that were crucial in forming the Native American culture. For these people, culture and art go hand in hand and is therefore impossible to know one without the other. The same is true for almost any other kind of artwork. In order to really appreciate a work of art one must have background knowledge of the society who formed and shaped it.
American imperialists had in mind to control the West Coast even before the Louisiana Purchase. “But no historian has yet dramatized the story of how Americans began, even before they acquired Louisiana, to view the ocean as their next frontier.” Acquiring the West Coast would give U.S shorter trading route to Asia than Europe had, and a path for further territorial expansion. At the same time, Americans would have controlled vast natural resources like gold and agricultural properties. In 1830s and 40s, w...
The region of the northwest coast was blessed with an abundance of natural recourses for human existence and made it possible for the area to thrive. As a result of this unusual abundance, the area could sustain large populations and a complex social order for many Indian groups. Because of the level of sustainability, the cultures had more time for artistic and intellectual activities and endeavors and over time, art became very important and vital to the complex social structures of the groups of the northwest coast.
In 1857, Bierstadt joined an expedition to the West, where he made a name for himself after painting an image of The Rocky Mountains (Pohl 162). His painting included the images of the mountains, trees, clouds, and tents where Native Americans had once stayed (Pohl 163). His large panoramic views of his landscape painting, “The Rockies” led to public interest and a strong desire to travel far to see national territory and for Westward expansion (Pohl 163). His works of the Rocky Mountains toured the US and Europe and eventually was purchased by James McHenry who was invested in the railroads which furthered Westward expansion settlement, and the development of commercial interest (Pohl 163).
“The St. Johns River Entering the Atlantic Ocean” painted by Hermann Herzog stands in American Art as the most ascetically illustrative picture inspired in the Florida coastline. Although, this German American artist settled in Pennsylvania, he painted primarily landscapes inspired in the areas he visited. He traveled and painted throughout Florida, Maine, California and the Northeast side of the country coast.
Grant Wood is a famous philosopher who was born in February in the year 1891 in Anamosa, Iowa. Wood was born to Quaker parents on a small farm. This experience would be the basis of his iconic images of small-town plain folk and verdant Midwestern vistas. He later moved to Cedar Rapids after the death of his father in 1901. He first studied at the Minneapolis School of design between 1910 and 1911 and became a professional designer while attending night courses at the University of Iowa and at the Art Institute of Chicago. At the end of 1915 he gave up designing and returned to Cedar Rapids. After his military service he taught painting and drawing at the public school of Cedar Rapids and visited Paris in 1920 with Marvin Cone. His early works were outdoor scenes combining a bright Fauve palette and a loose, impressionistic style - the result of a 1923-24 trip to Italy and Paris, which included study at the Academie Julian. He visited Europe again in 1928 and notably went to Germany and Holland where he discovered German and Dutch primitive painters to whom he borrowed many facets. Wood was appointed head of the Iowa Works Progress Administration-Federal Arts project in 1934 and also taught at the University of Iowa.
The Westward Expansion has often been regarded as the central theme of American history, down to the end of the19th century and as the main factor in the shaping of American history. As Frederick Jackson Turner says, the greatest force or influence in shaping American democracy and society had been that there was so much free land in America and this profoundly affected American society. Motives After the revolution, the winning of independence opened up the Western country and was hence followed by a steady flow of settlers to the Mississippi valley. By 1840, 10 new western states had been added to the Federal union. The frontier line ran through Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas on the western side of the river. All parts of the valley except Wisconsin and Minnesota were well populated. Thus a whole new section had been colonized with lasting effects on the American institutions, ideals and ways of living. The far west was the land of high mountains, deserts, strange rock formations, brilliant colors and immense distance. Fur trade with Europe had now become a lucrative business and the fur traders became the pathfinders for the settlers. Migration was now possible by the discovery of paths over which ox-driven carts could be driven through seeking mountains and across the western desert. People wanted to move away from the overcrowded cities and this led to the migration into the uninhabited lands. Increased transportation like roads, railroads and canals and their construction created a demand for cheap labor making it easier for people to get jobs now, in contrast with the cities where there was unemployment. The pioneer movement for 70 years after the revolution roughly represented the form of 3 parallel streams, flowing westwards from New England, Virginia and South Carolina. The first pioneer groups tended to move directly westward. Thus the new Englanders migrated into western New York and along the shores of the great lakes, Virginians into Kentucky and then into Missouri and the South Carolinians and Georgians into the gulf territories. Throughout the settlement of the Mississippi valley, most pioneers did not travel long distances and as a territory had been occupied, families would move into the adjacent one. There were boom periods of great activity, during which million acres of land were sold, alternated ...
John Gast’s painting titled American Progress perfectly portrays the idea of manifest destiny that engulfed the minds of Americans. Portrayed in the right side of the painting is indubitable western influence with boats, a bridge in the distance, and trains with little or no track in front of them which allows the mind to conclude the newcomers are pushing west. In the middle of the landscape are horses, buggies, and covered wagons, showing a slight increase in modernity compared to what is shown in the far left of the painting, Indians or better known by 18th and 19th century Europeans as savages. Gast also places the portrayal of western influence in the light portion of the piece, and the old primitive way of live portrayed by savages on the dark side of the piece. This is not coincidence, primitive behavior was viewed as improper and it needed enlightenment this is precisely what Gast presents in American Progress. In the bottom left corner an animal shows its teeth, which could be a signal of the dangers to moving west. What is probably noticed first however is the woman in the center of the painting. The angel, the guiding light of Manifest Destiny the one who is bringing the light that you see so prominently in the right side of the painting. Manifest Destiny was thought of as God’s call to bring western enlightenment to the west. Those who were enlightened and civilizations created by those who were enlightened were viewed as utopian. However, eleven years before Gast painted American Progress was the start of a war that rattled America. Westward expansion and subsequent acquisition of the west was fought over and the utopian ideal Gast portrays was...
The cowboys of the frontier have long captured the imagination of the American public. Americans, faced with the reality of an increasingly industrialized society, love the image of a man living out in the wilderness fending for himself against the dangers of the unknown. By the end of the 19th century there were few renegade Indians left in the country and the vast expanse of open land to the west of the Mississippi was rapidly filling with settlers.
Gardner, Helen, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. N.p., 2014. Print.
Another example of how art represented in the Native North America exhibit is a painting by David Paul Bradley, a Chippewa artist, titled Greasy Grass Premonition #2. It depicts a scene from the Battle of Little Bighorn, but the tombstone explains that Native Americans know it as the Battle of Greasy Grass Creek. By providing that information for the audience, the MFA is allowing them a glimpse into the minds of Native Americans and their culture instead of presenting it as another example of Western bias.
In 1931--the middle of The Great Depression, the painting titled View of New York was executed by an American painter and photographer named Charles Sheeler Jr. in New York. The painting presents the artist’s studio structure and only the cloudy sky of the most modernized city in the world. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston currently reserves