Art in America: A Critical and Historial Sketch

by S. G. W. Benjamin

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ART IN AMERICA
A CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCH

BY
S. G. W. BENJAMIN
AUTHOR OF "CONTEMPORARY ART IN EUROPE" "WHAT IS ART" &c.
ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS
FRANKLIN SQUARE
1880

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by
H A R P E R & B R O T H E R S,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

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ERRATUM.
The cut on page 28, attributed to Rembrandt Peale, should be credited to
John T. Peele.

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PREFACE.

THE aim of this book has been to give a historical outline of the growth of the arts in America. But while this has been the dominating idea in the mind of the writer, criticism has necessarily entered, more or less, into the preparation of the work, since only by weighing the differences or the comparative merits of those artists who seemed best to illustrate the various phases of American art has it been possible to trace its progress from one step to another.

It is from no lack of appreciation of their talents that the author has apparently neglected mention of the American artists resident in foreign capitals—like Bridgman, Duveneck, Wight, Neal, Bacon, Benson, Ernest Parton, Millet, Whistler, Dana, Blashfield, Miss Gardner, Miss Conant, and many others who have done credit to American æsthetic culture. But it was necessary to draw the line somewhere; and to discuss what our artists are painting abroad would have at once enlarged the scope of the work beyond the limits of the plan adopted. An exception has been made in the case of our sculptors, because they have so uniformly lived and wrought in Europe, and so large a proportion of them are still resident there, that, were we to confine this branch of the subject only to the sculptors now actually in America, there would be little left to say about their department of our arts.

The author takes this occasion cordially to thank the artists and amateurs who have kindly permitted copies of their paintings and drawings to be engraved for this volume.

CONTENTS.

Page
[I.]
EARLY AMERICAN ART	[13]
[II.]
AMERICAN PAINTERS (1828-1878)	[39]
[III.]
AMERICAN PAINTERS (1828-1878)	[66]
[IV.]
AMERICAN PAINTERS (1828-1878)	[97]
[V.]
SCULPTURE IN AMERICA	[134]
[VI.]
PRESENT TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN ART	[164]
[INDEX.]([A],[B],[C],[D],[E],[F],[G],[H],[I],[J],[K],[L],[M],[N],[O],[P],[Q],[R],[S],[T],[V],[W],[Y].)

ILLUSTRATIONS.

[Some of the illustrations have been moved to the nearest paragraph break for ease of reading. (n. of etext transcriber)]

Subject.	Artist.	Page.
Portrait of a Lady	John Singleton Copley	[Frontispiece]
Family of Bishop Berkeley	John Smybert	[16]
Death on the Pale Horse	Benjamin West	[19]
Death of Montgomery	John Trumbull	[23]
General Knox	Gilbert Stuart	[25]
"Beggar's Opera"	G. Stuart Newton	[27]
"Babes in the Wood"	Rembrandt Peale	[28]
Fanny Kemble	Thomas Sully	[29]
Ariadne	John Vanderlyn	[30]
The Hours	E. G. Malbone	[32]
Jeremiah	Washington Allston	[34]
Dying Hercules	Samuel F. B. Morse	[35]
"Mumble The Peg"	Henry Inman	[40]
Portrait of Parke Godwin	Thomas Le Clear	[43]
Portrait of Fletcher Harper	C. L. Elliott	[45]
An Ideal Head	G. A. Baker	[48]
The Judgement of Paris	Henry Peters Grey	[50]
Miranda	Daniel Huntington	[53]
A Surprise	William Sidney Mount	[55]
Taking the Veil	Robert Weir	[57]
Desolation. From "The Course of Empire"	Thomas Cole	[59]
A Study from Nature	A. B. Durand	[61]
Noon by the Sea-Shore.—Beverly Beach	J. F. Kensett	[63]
Altorf, Birth-Place of William Tell	George L. Brown	[64]
Brook in the Woods	Worthington Whittredge	[67]
Landscape Composition	R. W. Hubbard	[70]
"The Vasty Deep"	William T. Richards	[72]
High Torn, Rockland Lake	Jasper F. Cropsey	[74]
The Parsonage	A. F. Bellows	[75]
Landscape with Cattle	James Hart	[77]
Sunset on the Hudson	Sandford R. Gifford	[80]
A Composition	Frederick E. Church	[82]
A Winter Scene	Louis R. Mignot	[84]
Ship of "The Ancient Mariner"	James Hamilton	[85]
"Whoo!"	William H. Beard	[87]
Lafayette in Prison	E. Leutze	[89]
Portrait of a Lady	William Page	[91]
The Refuge	Elihu Vedder	[93]
Cartoon Sketch: Christ and Nicodemus	John Lafarge	[95]
View on the Kern River	A. Bierstadt	[99]
The Yosemite	Thomas Hill	[100]
The Bathers	Thomas Moran	[101]
Landscape	Jervis M'Entee	[104]
County Kerry	A. H. Wyant	[105]
The Adirondacks	Homer Martin	[107]
A Landscape	J. W. Casilear	[109]
Ship Ashore	M. F. H. De Haas	[111]
A Foggy Morning	W. E. Norton	[112]
A Marine	Arthur Quartley	[114]
Arguing the Question	T. W. Wood	[116]
The Rose	B. F. Mayer	[118]
Dress Parade	J. G. Brown	[120]
A Bed-time Story	S. J. Guy	[121]
The Mother	Eastman Johnson	[123]
Sail-boat	Winslow Homer	[124]
The Scout	Wordsworth Thompson	[126]
On the Old Sod	William Magrath	[127]
"A Matin Song"	Fidelia Bridges	[129]
Study of a Dog	Frank Rogers	[130]
Lost in the Snow	A. F. Tait	[132]
Eve Before the Fall	Hiram Powers	[135]
Orpheus	Thomas Crawford	[137]
Columbus Before the Council. From the Bronze Door of the Capitol at Washington	Randolph Rogers	[139]
The Ghost in "Hamlet"	Thomas R. Gould	[141]
George Washington	J. Q. A. Ward	[143]
Medea	William Wetmore Story	[146]
The Promised Land	Franklin Simmons	[147]
Latona and Her Infants	W. H. Rinehart	[150]
Zenobia	Harriet Hosmer	[152]
Evening	E. D. Palmer	[153]
Bust of William Page	William R. O'Donovan	[155]
Abraham Pierson	Launt Thompson	[157]
The Charity Patient	John Rogers	[158]
The Whirlwind	J. S. Hartley	[159]
Adoration of the Cross byAngels. St. Thomas's Church, New York	Augustus St. Gaudens	[160]
Thomas Jefferson's Idea of a Monument		[162]
The Mowing	Alfred Fredericks	[165]
Birds in the Forest	Miss Jessie Curtis	[169]
Representing the Manner ofPeter's Courtship	Howard Pyle	[171]
Some Art Connoisseurs	W. Hamilton Gibson	[173]
Washington Opening the Ball	C. S. Reinhart	[175]
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston		[178]
The Astonished Abbé	E. A. Abbey	[181]
A Child's Portrait	B. C. Porter	[184]
A Bit of Venice	Samuel Colman	[185]
The Old Orchard	R. Swain Gifford	[187]
A Landscape	George Inness	[188]
La Marguerette—the Daisy	William M. Hunt	[189]
Moonlight	John J. Enneking	[191]
Having a Good Time	Louis C. Tiffany	[192]
Southampton, Long Island	C. H. Miller	[193]
A Study	Frederick Dielman	[195]
The Burgomaster	H. Muhrman	[197]
Burial of the Dead Bird	J. Alden Wier	[200]
The Apprentice	William M. Chase	[201]
The Professor	Thomas Eakins	[204]
The Goose-herd	Walter Shirlaw	[205]
A Spanish Lady	Mary S. Cassatt	[208]
Study of a Boy's Head	W. Sartain	[209]