American 18-19th Century Genre Scene Art
(above: Edward Lamson Henry, Can They Go Too, 1877, oil on board, 6 x 4-5/16 inches. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Introduction
Genre paintings are scenes from everyday life.
This section of the Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO) catalogue Topics in American Art is devoted to the topic "American 18-19th Century Genre Scene Art." Articles and essays specific to this topic published in TFAO's Resource Library are listed at the beginning of the section. Clicking on titles takes readers directly to these articles and essays. The date at the end of each title is the Resource Library publication date.
We recommend that readers search within the TFAO website to find detailed information for any topic. Please see our page How to research topics not listed for more information.
Next are links to valuable online resources found outside our website. Links may be to museums' articles about exhibits, plus much more topical information based on our online searches.
Following online resources is information about offline resources including museums, DVDs, and paper-printed books, journals and articles.
(above: William Gilbert Gaul, Van Buren, Tennessee, c. 1881, oil on canvas, 29.6 x 44 inches, The Johnson Collection. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Our 105 articles and essays honoring the American experience through its art:
Benjamin West: General Wolfe and the Art of Empire (10/20/12)
American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915 (11/10/09)
Under the Canopy of Heaven: Works by William Sidney Mount (10/16/09)
Thomas Hovenden: American Painter of Hearth and Homeland; article by Michael Schantz (4/22/09)
At Home in America: 19th Century Genre Painting (7/23/08)
Shallow Creek: Thomas Hart Benton and American Waterways (3/27/08)
George Caleb Bingham: The Making of "The County Election (2/20/08)
William Sidney Mount: The Education of an Artist (6/28/07)
(above: George Caleb Bingham, Jolly Flatboatmen in Port, 1857, oil on canvas, 47 1/4 x 69 5/8 inches, Saint Louis Art Museum, Museum Purchase. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Liberty & Justice: American Ideals Portrayed by Currier & Ives (2/3/07)
Winslow Homer-American Illustrator (8/29/06)
Forging an American Identity: The Art of William Ranney (5/11/06)
Finding Religion: American Art from the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection (12/20/05)
Currier & Ives: An American Panorama (11/7/05)
Winslow Homer in the National Gallery of Art (7/14/05)
Winslow Homer the Illustrator: His Wood Engravings, 1857-1888 (1/22/05)
(above: William Hahn, Circus (It's My Turn), 1882, oil on canvas, 34 x 26.7 inches, Oakland Museum of California, The Oakland Museum Kahn Collection. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
:additonal William Hahn paintings
An Artist with the Corps of Discovery: The Lewis & Clark Suite by Charles Fritz (12/1/04)
George Catlin and His Indian Gallery (9/13/04)
Seen But Not Heard: Images of Children from the Collection of the Boston Athenæum (9/13/04)
Winslow Homer and the Great Forest; essay by David Tatham (7/20/04)
Currier & Ives Prints Acquired by the Springfield Museums (5/10/04)
Winslow Homer - The Illustrator: His Wood Engravings 1857-1888 (11/18/03)
Sugaring Off: The Maple Sugar Paintings of Eastman Johnson (8/26/03)
Honoring the Legacy of Lewis and Clark: Native American Art and the American West (2/13/03)
Click here for more articles and essays on this subject published in 1997-2002.
(above: Jessie Willcox Smith, 1863-1935 (artist); L. Prang & Co. (publisher), Checkers, 1861-1897 (approximate), proof print, Boston Public Library, Print Department. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
From other websites:
In October 2012 The Metropolitan Museum of Art launched MetPublications, an online resource that offers in-depth access to the Museum's print and online publications, covering art, art history, archaeology, conservation, and collecting. Titles relating to American representational art available for free viewing via.pdf download or online reading as of 2013 include: American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915; Weinberg, H. Barbara, and Carrie Rebora Barratt, eds., with essays by Carrie Rebora Barratt, Margaret C. Conrads, Bruce Robertson, and H. Barbara Weinberg (2009). Accessed August, 2015.
American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915, an exhibit held October 12, 2009-January 24, 2010 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Includes an online video,"Spectrum Presents: The Moth at the Met: American Stories," inspired by the exhibit. Accessed February, 2015.
Telling Tales: Stories and Legends in 19th-Century American Art, an exhibit held September 20, 2013-January 12, 2014 at the Taft Museum of Art. Includes Portico article. Accessed April, 2015.
Telling Tales: Stories and Legends in 19th-Century American Art is a 2015 exhibit at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts which says: "Telling Tales assembles paintings and sculptures from the collection of the New-York Historical Society that recount stories relating to American cultural aspirations and everyday life in the early to mid-nineteenth century." Accessed 8/18
(above: William Sidney Mount, Bargaining for a Horse, 1835, oil on canvas. New-York Historical Society. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Go to Genre Art: 18-19th Century, 19-20th Century, 20-21st Century
Return to Topics in American Representational Art
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Resource Library is a free online publication of nonprofit Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO). Since 1997, Resource Library and its predecessor Resource Library Magazine have cumulatively published online 1,300+ articles and essays written by hundreds of identified authors, thousands of other texts not attributable to named authors, plus 24,000+ images, all providing educational and informational content related to American representational art. Texts and related images are provided almost exclusively by nonprofit art museum, gallery and art center sources.
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