Part III. LEGENDS OF AMERICAN PAINTING
Benjamin West (1738-1820) Young Benjamin West never saw an artist’s painting, but he learned how to make one. He never had a drawing lesson, yet he became America’s first important artist. Benjamin West lived over two hundred years ago, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His family was poor, and Benjamin did not have much chance to go to school. One day a wonderful thing happened. A gentleman gave him a box of paints, some brushes and some canvas. With these fine materials, he soon was painting beautiful pictures. His pictures attracted much attention. A few years later one of his friends sent him to Europe. There he saw some of the greatest pictures in the world. He worked hard and did so well as an artist that King of England made him a knight. That was the highest honor the king could pay him. He was called Sir Benjamin West. All artists before Benjamin West had painted pictures of people dressed in robes. Benjamin West was the first to paint pictures of people dressed in their own clothes. This attracted a great deal of attention wherever his pictures were exhibited. Benjamin had many Indian friends. Perhaps his friendship with the Indians caused him to paint one of his most famous pictures. It is called Penn’s Treaty with the Indians. John Trumbull (1756-1843) John Trumbull was the first American artist to produce history paintings dealing with contemporary American events (many of these paintings were begun in England under the guidance of Benjamin West). Trumbull served in the Continental army from 1775 to 1777. For a brief time he was Washington’s aide-decamp. He ended his military career at the age of twenty-one. He reverted to his early interest, painting, and pursued it for a time in America, chiefly in Boston, and then, from 1780, in London. His studies there with Benjamin West were interrupted by his arrest as a suspected spy, followed by an eight-month imprisonment. After he was freed, he returned to America. In 1784 Trumbull was back in London, once more studying under West; he remained there until 1789. It was there that he began to work on his paintings of the great battles. In the twelve battle scenes painted between 1786 and 1794, Trumbull caught with masterly skill the excitement and sweep of the campaigns. Trumbull’s The Declaration of Independence, of 1786 – 1797, is a painting of particular historical significance. Of the forty-eight figures crowded into the canvas, thirty-six were painted from life. Standing at the table before John Hancock are John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. In 1794 Trumbull sailed again for London, this time as secretary to John Jay; he remained abroad until 1804. After one more period in London, 1808—1816, he settled finally in America. In 1818, when he was past sixty and his powers as an artist were on the wane, Trumbull was finally commissioned to paint a series of Revolutionary War scenes for the Capitol rotunda[1] in Washington. The Hudson River School[2] America's first group of landscape painters came to be known as the Hudson River School, even though the vistas they painted extended into the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Adirondacks of western Massachusetts, the Connecticut River Valley, and up and down the eastern coast of the United States. Cole, the greatest talent among the founders of the Hudson River School, was born in Lancashire, England. His family came to Philadelphia in 1819, when he was eighteen, and shortly afterwards settled on the frontier in Steubenvill, Ohio. Here his love of the wild beauty of the continent was nourished, and since he could not gain a livelihood from landscape painting, he roamed from village to village as a portrait painter. In 1823 and 1824 he worked at his landscape painting in Philadelphia and then, in 1825, moved with his family to New York where his landscapes were "discovered". Cole's landscapes drew increasing appreciation, and when he returned to his native England at the age of twenty-eight he was regarded as one of America's painters. The typical Hudson River School scene consists of a portion of virgin landscape, extending into the far-off distance; often, tiny foreground figures are set against it. Sometimes, there is also a blasted tree prominent in the foreground, to suggest to the viewer the desolation of the terrain.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on July 10, 1834, the son of a military engineer, Whistler lived in Russia, with brief visits to England, during 1843 – 1849, while his father directed the building of a railroad line. During 1854 he was a draftsman and map engraver. He left for Paris in 1855 (never to return to the United States) to become an artist. Such early paintings as At the Piano and The Blue Wave showed the realistic influence. In 1858 he published his first series of etchings; a second set, views of the Thames River, followed in 1860. In addition to his etchings, Whistler did occasional remarkable work in dry paint, watercolor, and pastel. In 1859 he moved to London and began a controversial artistic career. His White Girl was a huge success. His most famous painting in this genre was Mrs George Washington Whistler, 1872, which he also described as Arrangement in Grey and Black No 1 but which was universally known as Whistler's Mother. Subsequent portraits included Thomas Carlyle, 1873; Miss Cecily Alexander, 1873; Yellow Buskin, 1878; and Sarasote, 1884.
Miss Cecily Alexander, 1873
Nocturne in Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, 1872 Winslow Homer (1836-1910) Winslow Homer, one of the greatest American painters, was essentially a self-taught artist. At the outbreak of the Civil War Homer accompanied the army on several campaigns as a pictorial correspondent. His first important painting Prisoners from the Front was finished in 1866 and made him one of the most well-known painters in America. His post-war paintings dealt with American country life: farm scenes, children, pretty girls, summer resorts. The Morning Bell (1866), The Country School (1871), Glouster Farm (1874), Milking Time (1875) are unpretentious, down-to-earth subjects showing ordinary people doing their everyday work. His paintings increasingly failed to please the taste of Gilded Age America. His subject matter offended genteel taste. In the eyes of a contemporary writer, Henry James, his paintings seemed hopelessly unfinished and ugly. Homer’s democratic attitude manifested itself in his interest in the life of the American Negroes whom he painted with rare sympathy. In the nineties his subject matter and his style underwent a change. He concentrated on the elemental in nature and mankind: the mountains, the forest and particularly the sea. He painted woodsmen, fishermen, sailors. His central theme was man's relationship to nature. He was a pictorial poet of outdoor life of America, of the pioneer spirit that survived in those who lived close to nature" (Lloyd Goodrich). Homer completely ignored the life of the privileged classes of society, and devoted his art to the common people.
Summer Night, 1890. The Ash Can School[3] It was in New York that the first group of American artists to use the city as their subject came together. It is hard for us today, looking at the paintings of John Sloan, Maurice B. Prendergast, and other members of what has come to be known as the Ash Can School, to find anything revolutionary about them. In their days, though, these paintings represented a sharp break with the previous course of American art, and when the nucleus of the group — the “Eight Independent Painters” (usually shortened to the “Eight”) exhibited in New York’s Macbeth Gallery in 1908, a great deal of notoriety was attached to the event. For they were the first group of American painters to show men and women with no pretensions of glamor going about their daily activities. The term Ash Can School (they were also dubbed the “revolutionary black gang”) was a negative one, and was aimed derisively at these painters who dealt only with the life of the alleys and backyards, or at least of the shabby people who were at home there. The spokesman of the group, Robert Henri, urged the importance of the common man in the street. Among the many causes he exposed was that of the Russian revolutionaries. Henri argued that art, both in its subject matter and in the quick, slapdash handling of it ought to reflect “life”. John Sloan worked for many years as a newspaper illustrator, and because of this background many of his paintings have an anecdotal quality. Prendergast was attracted to crowds; he had come to appreciate the crowd as a spectacle. George Bellows, a pupil of Henri’s, was closely associated with the Ash Can group. He represented personally what the group advocated through art. A Find sentences with the following words and phrases in the texts and translate them into Ukrainian: the vistas, to extend into, to nourish, to gain livelihood, to roam from village, to draw increasing appreciation, a typical scene, virgin landscape, foreground figures, to set against, to suggest to the viewer a draftsman, a map engraver, the realistic influence, dry paint, water-color, pastel, a portraitist, to be a huge success, etching, to use the city as the subject of art, to represent a sharp break from, the nucleus of the group, to attach a great deal of notoriety, to show smb. with no pretensions of glamour, to urge the importance of subject matter, handling, to reflect life, to have an anecdotal quality, to be closely associated with. a self-taught artist, pictorial correspondent, country life, farm scenes, unpretentious, down-to-earth subjects, to please the tastes of, to offend genteel taste, democratic attitude, to undergo a change, central theme, to ignore the life of the privileged classes of society, to devote one's art to the common people. B. Looking at the article about famous artists in America, find the one who: · is considered to be the first important artist in the history of American painting; · worked as a newspaper illustrator and his paintings have an anecdotal quality; · painted a series of Revolutionary War scenes for the capitol rotunda in Washington; · was born in England but spent his youth in the United States both as a landscape painter and a portrait painter; · presided over the Royal Society of British Artists; organized the newly founded International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Engravers; · was one of the greatest American painters but a self-taught; · was very skillful in history painting. C. Skim through the text about the Hudson River School and say what the typical Hudson River School scene is. D. Imagine you are an owner of the art gallery, choose 5 pictures of the Ash can School’s artists and motivate your choice.
Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (1844—1916) Painter and sculptor, born on July 25, 1844, in Philadelphia, Eakins was educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and from 1866 to 1869 at the Ecole des Beaux Arts[4] in Paris, and travelled briefly in Spain, where he was enthralled by the works of Spanish realists, particularly Velazques and Goya. Returning to Philadelphia in 1870, he studied anatomy at Jefferson Medical College and in 1873 became a lecturer at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His work was carefully laid out and painted with enormous attention to detail, creating a feeling of stark realism. Two of his most famous studies were of scenes in clinics: The Gross Clinic [5] , 1875, and The Agnew Clinic, 1869. He also painted sport scenes, notably Max Schmitt in a Single Scull, 1871, and Between the Rounds, 1899. He died in Philadelphia on June 25, 1916. After only moderate recognition in his lifetime, he eventually came to be acknowledged one of the greatest of American artists.
Baby at Play, 1876 Miss Van Buren, 1891
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During1879-1880 he lived in Venice and produced his finest series of etchings. Returning to London, he enjoyed a new popularity and was thought as a portraitist. Always a step ahead of conservative academicians he was never fully accepted by the critics, although by 1886 he was asked to preside over the Royal Society of British Artists; he also organized the newly founded International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Engravers during 1897. He settled again in Paris in 1892, but died in London on July 17, 1903.
