Selections from the Permanent Collection I: Painting America in the 19th Century

January 23 - April 25, 2004

Throughout the 19th century, American artists sought to give artistic form to an emerging nation-state both different from and an extension of Europe. This exhibition showcases some of the most striking representations that shaped the image and identity of America even as it stands today. The dramatic landscapes of Hudson River School artists Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, and Frederic Edwin Church envision America through romantic landscapes that highlight the fascination with the vast, rich, and unpredictable land. By contrast, symbolic images of westward expansion by George Caleb Bingham and Carl F. Wimar powerfully evoke the increasing cultivation of the Wild West. These are supplemented by portraits of civic and cultural leaders by Thomas Eakins and Charles Ingham and impressionist landscapes by John Henry Twachtman and William Merritt Chase.