Category: American Art
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Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by John Singer Sargent
Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose is a lovely, dreamlike painting by John Singer Sargent. It depicts two little girls with Japanese lanterns in a setting of pale flowers.
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Etretat by Henry A. Bacon
Right now, the weather is pretty crummy where I live, so I definitely picked this painting for reasons of escapism. I also thought it was a watercolor until I read the description. I’m always amazed by oil paintings that manage to convey something of watercolor’s characteristic lightness. Henry A. Bacon (1839-1912) was an American painter…
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World’s Columbian Exposition by Theodore Robinson
Theodore Robinson (1852-1896) was one of the first American impressionist painters, and he painted at the Giverny, France artists’ colony alongside Claude Monet.* This particular painting, one of his late works, is perhaps not as characteristic of his usual style as his earlier rural landscapes. However, I chose it because of its subject matter – the…
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Girl with Japanese Lanterns by Everett Shinn
There’s something so beautifully mysterious about this painting by Ashcan School artist Everett Shinn (1876-1953). I think it’s the contrast between the dark background and bright lights from the lanterns, combined with the loose, painterly brushwork making up the main shapes. You get just enough sense of the scene to be draw in by it, but details of…
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Co-ee-há-jo, a Seminole Chief by George Catlin
George Catlin (1796-1872) was a unique sort of artist/anthropologist/social activist/entertainment producer combination who achieved lasting notoriety for his sympathetic paintings of Native Americans. Having become interested in Native American culture at a young age, the adult Catlin travelled throughout the American west with William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame) to visit and depict members of the plains tribes. Catlin…
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Camel Grazing at Mosque by Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) is world famous for his works in stained glass and other decorative arts, as well as for founding Tiffany Studios. However, did you also know that he was an accomplished painter? While that doesn’t come as a complete surprise to me, of course, I had never really focused on that fact until one…
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Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney by Robert Henri
Robert Henri’s stunning portrait of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Whitney was a sculptor, collector, and founder of the Whitney Museum. Henri was an important American portraitist.
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Sunlight on the Coast by Winslow Homer
I featured another painting by Winslow Homer a few weeks ago, but today is his birthday, so it would be just wrong to not acknowledge it. This work is very different in tone from “The Milkmaid”, although the actual style of painting is quite similar. Homer is well-known for his seascapes, many of them painted…
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The Gross Clinic by Thomas Eakins
The controversy surrounding the career of American realist painter Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) is perfectly encapsulated by his great painting The Gross Clinic. The Philadelphia-born Eakins loved naturalistic detail and was a strong advocate for the use of nude models in artists’ education
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Wonderland Circus, Sideshow Coney Island by Reginald Marsh
Reginald Marsh, Wonderland Circus, Sideshow Coney Island, 1930.Tempera on canvas stretched on Masonite. Today’s painting is not yet in the public domain, so click here to view it. I try so hard never to do post about works I can’t actually show you, but this artist is too wonderful to overlook simply because he died…
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The Milkmaid by Winslow Homer
I think we’ve established my great love of the American Impressionists in recent weeks, so it’s time for something different. Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was a nineteenth-century American painter who worked in a more naturalistic style. He painted many New England landscapes, seascapes, and scenes of rural life.
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Church at Old Lyme by Childe Hassam
Childe Hassam (1859-1935) is one of my most favorite American artists. He is also has the rare distinction of having one of his paintings hang in the Oval Office.
