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Coming of Age
American Art 1850s to 1950s
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American art came of age in the hundred years between the 1850s and 1950s, achieving an international reputation with artists such as John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler, Frederic Remington, Marsden Hartley and more. A new exhibit provides an opportunity to view the works of some of the greatest American artists of the past two centuries. |
John Singer Sargent
Title: Val d'Aosta: A Man Fishing, ca. 1906
Artist: John Singer Sargent (American 1856-1925)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 22 1/4 x 28 1/4 in.
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
Gift of anonymous donor (1928.53) All rights reserved.
Image Courtesy: The American Federation of Arts
John Singer Sargent was the finest portraitist in America. He was also gifted in the creation of landscapes and a noted watercolorist. He spent most of his career painting in Europe. His favorite piece was Madame X, not in this exhibit, which caused such scandal at the Parisian Salon of 1884 that the artist left France to continue his career in England.
Winslow Homer
Title: Eight Bells, 1886
Artist: Winslow Homer (American 1836-1910)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 25 3/16 x 30 3/16 in.
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts;
Gift of anonymous donor (1930.379) All rights reserved
Image Courtesy: The American Federation of Arts
Marine scenes are traditionally associated with Winslow Homer. The Boston native spent his early career working as a lithographer before opening his own studio in New York City. Harper's Weekly commissioned the artist to sketch battle imagery at the front lines of the American Civil War. This is perceived as the time that Homer switched full-time to painting instead of illustration. It is images of nature that were his favored subjects.
Asher B. Durand
Title: Study of a Wood Interior, ca. 1855
Artist: Asher Brown Durand (American 1796-1886)
Medium: Oil on Canvas Mounted on Panel
Dimensions: 16 3/4 x 24 in.
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
Gift of Mrs. Frederic F. Durand (1932.1)All rights reserved.
Image Courtesy: The American Federation of Arts
Asher Brown Durand was a member of the group known as the Hudson River School. Durand was an advocate for accuracy in his landscapes.
James McNeill Whistler
Title: Brown and Silver: Old Battersea Bridge, 1859-63
Artist: James McNeill Whistler (American 1834-1903)
Medium: Oil on Canvas Mounted on Masonite
Dimensions: 25 1/8 x 29 15/16 in.
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts;
Gift of Cornelius N. Bliss (1928.55) All rights reserved.
Image Courtesy: The American Federation of Arts
Noted bon vivant James McNeill Whistler spent much of his career painting in England and Europe. Whistler once sued art critic John Ruskin for condemning one of the artist's works. Whistler won the court case but was awarded a token sum. The costs of the legal action sent him bankrupt. He simply painted more to allow him to continue his expensive lifestyle.
George Inness
Title: The Coming Storm, ca. 1879
Artist: George Inness (American 1825-1894)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 27 1/4 x 41 3/4 in.
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
Gift of anonymous donor (1928.25) All rights reserved.
Image Courtesy: The American Federation of Arts
George Inness was heavily influenced by the French Barbizon school. It was named for the village in France where the artists of that school, including Rousseau and Millet gathered which is located near Fontainblue Forest. Their style was to emphasize mood in landscapes with darker palette and looser brushwork. Inness was regarded as among the finest American landscape artists during his lifetime.
William Michael Harnett
Title: Still Life with Letter to Mr. Clarke, 1879
Artist: William Michael Harnett (American 1848-1892)
Medium: Oil on Canvas Mounted on Masonite
Dimensions: 11 1/8 x 15 in.
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
Gift of Harold Clarke Durrell (1941.71) All rights reserved.
Image Courtesy: The American Federation of Arts
Irish native William Michael Harnett spent his early life in Philadelphia. His artistic career was based in New York City. He was a still life artist who often included musical instruments in his paintings.
John Henry Twachtman
Title: Hemlock Pool, ca. 1900
Artist: John Henry Twachtman (American 1853-1902)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 29 7/8 x 24 7/8 in.
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
Gift of anonymous donor (1928.34) All rights reserved.
Image Courtesy: The American Federation of Arts
American Impressionist John Henry Twachtman was a member of the 'Ten', a group of artists that exhibited together. Frank Duveneck was his art teacher.
Frederic Remington
Title: Moonlight, Wolf ca. 1909
Artist: Frederic Remington (American 1861-1909)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 20 1/16 x 26 in.
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
Gift of the members of the Phillips Academy Board of Trustees on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Addison Gallery (1956.2) All rights reserved.
Image Courtesy: The American Federation of Arts
American West images are resplendent in the works of Frederic Remington. George Catlin, a noted illustrator of Native Americans, was related to Remington. He rarely visited the west but spent several months there during each of his visits.
John Sloan
Title: Sunday, Women Drying Their Hair, 1912
Artist: John Sloan (American 1871-1950)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 26 1/8 x 32 1/8 in.
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
Museum purchase (1938.67) All rights reserved.
Image Courtesy: The American Federation of Arts
John Sloan pioneered the American realist movement along with Robert Henri. It was Henri who inspired Sloan to become a painter. He was a member of 'The Eight', which was also known as the Ashcan School, named for the gritty images of urban life in the early 20th Century depicted by the artists of this movement.
Title: The Circus, 1912
Artist: George Bellows (American 1882-1925)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 33 7/8 x 44 in.
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts;
Gift of Elizabeth Paine Metcalf (1947.8) All rights reserved.
Image Courtesy: The American Federation of Arts
The exhibit begins with images collected from the Hudson River School artists looking at the American landscape viewed through the artistry of the mid-Nineteenth Century artists. Later the artists looked across the oceans for inspiration. Tonalists were influenced by the French Barbizon works. Native subjects inspired such artists as Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer and Eastman Johnson.
Title: Peinture/Nature morte, ca. 1924
Artist: Patrick Henry Bruce (American 1881-1936)
Medium: Oil and Graphite on Canvas
Dimensions: 28 3/4 x 36 1/4 in.
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts;
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Lane (1958.38) All rights reserved.
Image Courtesy: The American Federation of Arts
As the new century dawned painters who chose to live in Europe were influenced by their surroundings, evident in the works of Sargent and Whistler. Modernism is not overlooked in Coming of Age with the works of Stuart Davis, Man Ray and Patrick Henry Bruce.
Title: Manhattan Bridge Loop, 1928
Artist: Edward Hopper (American 1882-1967)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 35 x 60 in.
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
Gift of Stephen C. Clark, Esq. (1932.17) All rights reserved.
Image Courtesy: The American Federation of Arts
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Coming of Age includes seventy paintings and sculptures that demonstrate the complex and often contradictory impulses in American art during the years when American artists struggled to define a uniquely American style. |
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Title: The West Wind, 1891
Artist: Winslow Homer (American 1836-1910)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 30 x 44 in.
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
Gift of anonymous donor (1928.24) All rights reserved.
Image Courtesy: The American Federation of Arts
The exhibition was organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy in Andover Massachusetts.
Coming of Age : American Art 1850s to 1950s
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy Andover Massachusetts:
September 9, 2006 - January 7, 2007
Meadows Museum of Art, Dallas:
November 30, 2007 - February 24, 2008
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London England:
March 14, 2008 - June 8, 2008
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice Italy:
June 27, 2008 - October 12, 2008
Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Florida:
November 6, 2008 - March 8, 2009
