Diploma Lecture Series 2013 Revolution to Romanticism: European Art and Culture 1750-1850

‘Noble beyond expression’: Neoclassicism in America 1750-1850

Jane Clark

21/22 August 2013

Lecture summary: The influence of European Neo-Classicism, coinciding as it did with the lead up to and achievement of American Independence, was welcomed across the Atlantic. 18th-century Americans truly believed that they were creating something great, with art and architecture an integral part of the project. At the start of the period under consideration, most of America was British; by 1850, America was the United States – stretching clear across the continent. Neo-Classicism became, to some extent, if not a national ‘style’, then a national way of thinking. American art of this period is permeated with history and yet equally with a sense of the New World’s future promise. From the early Republican days through the 19th-century’s ultra-democratic westward expansion and beyond, elements of Neo-Classicism were enlisted to evoke nation-building moral virtue, strength, democratic values, learning and a sophisticated appreciation of beauty. Visual references to antiquity could transform political strife, military conquest or the displacement and destruction of peoples into visions of harmony and inevitability.

Complex interrelationships between France, Great Britain and the newly United States of America are touched on – with artistic as well as social and political influences going in both directions. Artists discussed include Benjamin West, Gilbert Stuart, John Singleton Copley, John Vanderlyn and Thomas Cole. Image list:

1. Francis Kearney after Gideon Fairman, American Literature & Fine Arts, Rewarding Patriotism & Virtue, From the Port Folio, third series, 1815, Engraving, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

2. Silver Certificate bills: 1896, $1 - History instructing Youth (designer, Will H. Low), $2 - Science presents Steam and Electricity to Commerce and Manufacture (designer, E. H. Blashfield), $5 - Electricity as the Dominant Force in the World (designer, Walter Shirlaw), National Museum of American History: National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution

3. Jacob van Meurs, America, frontispiece from The new and unknown world, or description of America and the South-land, Arnoldus Montanus, Amsterdam, 1671, Engraving, Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections

4. Robert S. Duncanson 1821/2-1855, Pompeii (detail), 1855, Oil on canva,Smithsonian American Art Museum; Views of ancient Greece and Italy, including After Major James Pattison Cockburn, Three figures standing before the ruined colonnade of a temple, with the back wall of a theatre with arches behind, plate 10 from Pompeii, illustrated with picturesque views...; 1819, Etching, with some engraving, The British Museum; Edward Daniel Clarke, The temple of Erectheus [Erechtheion] near the Parthenon at Athens, from Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia and Africa, London, 1814; James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, From The antiquities of Athens, measured and delineated, III, London, 1794, Bryn Mawr College

Proudly sponsored by

5. Horatio Greenough, George Washington, originally commissioned for the US Capitol in 1832, Marble, National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.; Seated Zeus, Roman, after the type established by Phidias at Olympia, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Marble with bronze additions, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg; Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), The Death of Socrates 1787 (detail), Oil on canvas, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

6. W. D. Cooper, America Trampling on Oppression, Frontispiece to The History of North America, E. Newberry, London, 1789, Engraving, Rare Book and Special Collections Division Library of Congress

7. Francis Kearney after Gideon Fairman, American Literature & Fine Arts, Rewarding Patriotism & Virtue, From the Port Folio, third series, 1815, Engraving, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

8. *Benjamin Tanner, 1775-1848, after John James Barralet c. 1747-1815, America Guided by

Wisdom, Philadelphia, 1820, Hand-coloured engraving, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

9. Jean-Antoine Houdon 1741-1828, George Washington, commissioned by the Virginia General Assembly in 1784, begun 1785, signed ‘1788’, completed in 1791/2 and delivered in 1796, Virginia State Capitol, Richmond, VA

10. Jean-Antoine Houdon, George Washington; Apollo Belvedere, Rome, c. 120-140 CE; after the Greek bronze original of c. 350-325 BCE, Marble, The Vatican Museums

11. Mather Brown 1761- 1831, Thomas Jefferson [with a statue of Libertas, the Roman goddess of Liberty] 1786, Oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Maison Carrée, Nîmes, c. 16 BCE; State Capitol, Richmond, Virginia, 1785-88

12. The Virginia State Capitol, Richmond, 1785-88 in a watercolour by William Goodacre (1830), Valentine-Richmond History Museum

13. ‘Monticello’, Charlottesville, Virginia; Begun c. 1772; remodelled 1794-1809 14. William Thornton 1759-1828, United States Capitol, Washington, D.C. West elevation ‘High Dome’,

1793, Ink and pencil on paper, Library of Congress 15. The White House, Washington, D.C., 1792-1800; Andalusia (the Nicholas Biddle Estate), near

Philadelphia, 1794-1806 and 1835-36; The US Treasury Building, Washington, D.C., 1830, 1852-55; The New York Public Library, New York, 1897–1911; The Supreme Court, Washington, D.C., 1935; The Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C., 1943

16. Benjamin West 1738-1820, The Death of Socrates 1756, Oil on canvas, Philadelphia Historical Society at the Atwell

17. Benjamin West 1738-1820, Cleombrotus Ordered into Banishment by Leonidas II, King of Sparta, 1768, Oil on canvas, Tate, London

18. Benjamin West 1738-1820, The Departure of Regulus, 1770, Oil on canvas, Royal Collection © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; Companion piece was Hannibal’s Oath

19. *Benjamin West 1738-1820, The Death of General Wolfe, 1770, Oil on canvas, National Gallery of

Canada, Ottawa 20. The Death of General Wolfe with the Belvedere torso, Roman, 1st century CE, Marble, Vatican

Museums, Rome 21. Benjamin West 1738-1820, Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky c. 1816,

Posthumous portrait showing Franklin’s discovery in 1752 that lightning is electricity, Oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Arts, Philadelphia, PA

22. Impression of the lost statue of Zeus at Olympia, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and ancient Greek coin with seated Zeus; Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres 1780–1867, Napoleon on his Imperial throne, 1806, Oil on canvas, Musée de l'Armée, Paris ; Benjamin West 1738-1820, Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky c. 1816, Oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Arts

23. Horatio Greenough 1805-1852, George Washington, 1832-1840, Marble, Commissioned for the Washington Capitol but now in the National Museum of American History

24. Hiram Powers, The Greek Slave, Modelled 1841-43, carved 1844, Marble, Raby Castle, UK; The Venus de’Medici, Roman copy c. 1st century BCE after Greek original, Marble, Uffizi, Florence

25. John Singleton Copley 1738-1815, Watson and the Shark, 1778, Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

26. Borghese Gladiator, Roman copy c. 100 CE of Greek original of the 3rd century BCE by Agasias of Ephesus, Musée du Louvre, Paris

27. Watson and the Shark with inset images: Charles Le Brun, Dread, Astonishment with fear, Contempt , three engravings from Conférence de M. Le Brun sur l'expression générale et particulière, Paris, 1698; from the National Gallery of Art website - www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/highlights/highlight46471.html

28. Gilbert Stuart 1755-1828, George Washington ‘Lansdowne portrait’ 1796, Oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Gilbert Stuart 1755-1828, George Washington ‘Atheneum Portrait’ (unfinished) 1796, Oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Apollo Belvedere

29. John Vanderlyn 1775-1852, Caius Marius Amidst the Ruins of Carthage, 1807, Oil on canvas, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

30. The Salon of 1800, in the Salon Carré of the Louvre, Paris: Vue des Ouvrages de Peinryre des Artistes Vivants, Exposés aux Muséum Central des Arts en l’An VIII, de la R.F., engraving by Monsaldy and Devisme, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

31. Ludovisi Ares (Mars), Roman copy, 2nd century CE after a Greek original 4th century BCE, Marble, National Museum of Rome; Jacques-Louis David 1748-1825, The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons (detail), 1789, Oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre

32. *John Vanderlyn 1775-1852, Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos, 1809-14, Oil on canvas,

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA 33. Vatican Ariadne , Roman Hadrianic copy of a Hellenistic original of 2nd century BCE, Marble,

Vatican Museums, Rome (another version is in the Louvre and Jefferson owned a copy at Monticello); John Vanderlyn 1775-1852, Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos, 1809-14, Oil on canvas, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia

34. Gilbert Stuart 1755-1828, Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton, 1802–20, Oil on canvas, Worcester At Museum, Worcester MA

35. Large Herculaneum woman (Demeter?), Roman 40–60 CE, Marble, Skulpturensammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden; Vatican Ariadne, Roman Hadrianic copy of a Hellenistic original of 2nd century BCE , Marble, Vatican Museums, Rome ; Gilbert Stuart 1755-1828, Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton

36. John Vanderlyn 1775-1852, The Murder of Jane McCrae, 1804, Oil on canvas, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT

37. Jacques-Louis David 1748-1825, The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, 1789, Oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre ; John Vanderlyn 1775-1852, The Murder of Jane McCrae (detail)

38. *Charles Bird King 1785-1862, Young Omahaw, War Eagle, Little Missouri, and Pawnees, 1821, Oil

on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. 39. Thomas Cole 1801-1848, The Course of Empire, 1836: The Savage State;The Arcadian or Pastoral

State; The Consummation of Empire; Destruction; Desolation; Oil on canvas, five panels, New York Historical Society, New York; Plan for their placement in the home of his patron, Luman Reed, 1833, Ink and pencil on paper, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI

40. Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire: The Savage State 41. Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire: The Arcadian or Pastoral State 42. Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire

43. *Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire: Destruction

44. Hiram Powers 1805-1873, Andrew Jackson 1834–35; this carving 1839, Marble, Metropolitan

Museum of Art, New York; Mary C. Nelson, Eagle quilt, Saratoga County, New York, 1846, Cotton,

wool, cotton and silk thread, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.

45. Jasper Francis Cropsey 1823-1900, The Spirit of War 1851, Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.; The Spirit of Peace, 1851, Oil on canvas, The Woodmere Art Museum,

Philadelphia. Charles Knox Smith Collection

46. Jasper Francis Cropsey 1823-1900, Starrucca Viaduct , 1865, Oil on canvas, Toledo Museum of Art,

Toledo, Ohio

References: Ralph K. Andrist et al., The American Heritage, History of the Confident Years, American Heritage Publishing, New York, 1987 Lois Marie Fink, American Art at the Ninteenth-Century Paris Salons, Smithsonian Institution and Cambridge University Press, Washington and Cambridge, 1990 John K. Howat et al., American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987 William Kloss, Treasures from the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London, 1985 Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser et al., Hudson River School: Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 2003 Joshua C. Taylor, America as Art, Harper and Row, New York, 1976 William H. Truettner and Alan Wallach, Thomas Cole: Landscape into History, National Museum of American Art, Washington, 1994 Caroline Winterer, The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life 1780-1910, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2002 Caroline Winterer, ‘From Royal to Republican: The Classical Image in Early America’, The Journal of American History, March 2005, online at http://www.journalofamericanhistory.org/teaching/2005_03/article.pdf Neoclassicism and America 1750-1900 website, project director Gilbert T. Sewall, Center for Education Studies, A National Endowment for the Humanities and We the People Project, 2010, online at http://www.neoclassicism.us/uploads/Main/Neoclassicism%20and%20America%201750-1900.pdf

Images:

Benjamin Tanner, America Guided by Wisdom , 1775-1848, hand-coloured engraving, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe, 1770, Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

John Vanderlyn, Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos, 1809-14, Oil on canvas, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Charles Bird King, Young Omahaw, War Eagle, Little Missouri, and Pawnees, 1821, Oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Thomas Cole , Destruction, one of five panels from The Course of Empire, 1836, Oil on canvas, New York Historical Society, New York