The Americas

From colonial portraits to modernism: American artists sought their own image of their young country – its people and its overwhelming nature.

The times

The United States declared independence in 1776 and in the 19th century expanded to the Pacific – at the expense of Indigenous peoples. The Civil War of 1861 to 1865 ended slavery, but segregation and discrimination remained. Railways, industry and immigration made cities such as New York and Chicago grow; wealthy collectors founded great museums.

What art set out to do

Early portrait painters recorded merchants and the nation’s founders. The painters of the Hudson River School, such as Thomas Cole and Frederic Church, celebrated the wilderness as a sublime, national landscape. Winslow Homer showed fishermen, soldiers and the sea, and Impressionists such as Childe Hassam modern city life. African American artists such as Henry Ossawa Tanner won international recognition – often against great resistance.

How to recognise it

  • Vast, light-filled landscapes with very small people.
  • Clear, matter-of-fact portraits with little posing.
  • The sea and life on the coast as a major theme.
  • Around 1900: Impressionist city views of New York and Boston.

Timeline

  • 1776: Declaration of Independence of the United States.
  • 1836: Thomas Cole paints “The Oxbow”, a bend of the Connecticut River.
  • 1859: Frederic Church shows “The Heart of the Andes” – thousands queue to see it.
  • 1865: End of the Civil War; slavery is abolished.
  • 1913: The Armory Show in New York brings European modernism to America.

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