Transcript Early American Art

The Oxbow, by Thomas Cole, a noted Hudson River School artist
American Art
Early American Art
 Most of early
American art (from
the late 18th
century through the
early 19th century)
consists of history
painting and
portraits.
Paul Revere
by John Singleton Copley (1768)
Thomas Jefferson
by Charles Wilson Peale (1791)
Battle of Bunker Hill
by John Trumbull (1786)
 Stressed creativity
and emotion
 Inspired by nature
 The American
wilderness
 Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
 “Paul Revere’s
Ride”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Wanted American to "ignore
the courtly Muses of Europe“
 Define a distinct vision for
American art.
 Did not want Americans to
rely on the Europeans
 Part of the Transcendentalist
movement
Hudson River School
 Founded by Asher
Durand
 Influenced by
Romanticism and
Emerson’s call for a
distinct vision for
American art.
 Painted lush
landscapes
 Many traveled west for
inspiration
Asher Durand
 1791 – 1886
 Founder of the Hudson
River School
"Let [the artist]
scrupulously accept
whatever [nature]
presents him until he
shall, in a degree, have
become intimate with her
infinity...never let him
profane her sacredness by
a willful departure from
truth."
Self Portrait
“Kindred Spirits”
Thomas Cole
Self Portrait
 1801 – 1848
Frederic Church
1826 – 1900
N
I
A
G
A
R
A
F
A
L
L
S
Natural
Bridge
John James Audobon
 Drew birds, mammals,
plants, and other subjects
of nature
 Drew them as he floated
down the Mississippi River
 His Birds of America is
the most important work
on birds ever published
 Today the Audubon
Society continues his
spirit of protecting birds
and their habitats
 Nathaniel Hawthorne- The
Scarlet Letter
 Inspired by the Witchcraft trials
 Washington Irving- “Rip Van
Winkle” & “The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow”
 First American writer to gain
fame in Europe
 Herman Melville- Moby Dick
 Desire to kill a white whale
 Edgar Allen Poe- “Murders in
Rue Morgue”
 Wrote the 1st detective stories
 Walt Whitman- Leaves of
Grass
 Unrhymed poems about ordinary
people