It is hardly possible to predicate(AMERICAN PAINTING)

Books Recommended: American Art Review; Amory, Life of Copley; The Art Review; Benjamin, Contemporary Art in America; Century Magazine; Caffin, American Painters; Clement and Hutton, Artists of the Nineteenth Century; Cummings, Historic Annals of the National Academy of Design; Downes, Boston Painters (in Atlantic Monthly Vol. 62); Dunlap, Arts of Design in United States; Flagg,Life and Letters of Washington Allston; Galt, Life of West; Isham, History of American Painting; Knowlton, W. M. Hunt; Lester, The Artists of America; Mason, Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart; Perkins, Copley; Scribner's Magazine; Sheldon, American Painters; Tuckerman, Book of the Artists; Van Dyke, Art for Art's Sake; Van Rensselaer, Six Portraits; Ware, Lectures on Allston; White, A Sketch of Chester A. Harding. Single Piece Paintigns

AMERICAN ART: It is hardly possible to predicate much about the environment as it affects art in America. The result of the climate, the temperament, and the mixture of nations in the production or non-production of painting in America cannot be accurately computed at this early stage of history. One thing only is certain, and that is, that the building of a new commonwealth out of primeval nature does not call for the production of art in the early periods of development. The first centuries in the history of America were devoted to securing the necessities of life, the energies of the time were of a practical nature, and art as an indigenous product was hardly known. abstract oil paintings for sale
After the Revolution, and indeed before it, a hybrid portraiture, largely borrowed from England, began to appear, and after 1825 there was an attempt at landscape painting; but painting as an art worthy of very serious consideration, came in only with the sudden growth in wealth and taste following the War of the Rebellion and the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. The best of American art dates from about 1878, though during the earlier years there were painters of note who cannot be passed over unmentioned. cheap oil paintings for sale

FIG. 102.—WEST. PETER DENYING CHRIST. HAMPTON CT.

THE EARLY PAINTERS: The "limner," or the man who could draw and color a portrait, seems to have existed very early in American history.Smibert (1684-1751), a Scotch painter, who settled in Boston, andWatson (1685?-1768), another Scotchman, who settled in New Jersey, were of this class—men capable of giving a likeness, but little more. They were followed by English painters of even less consequence. Then came Copley (1737-1815) and West (1738-1820), with whom painting in America really began.wall art oil paintings They were good men for their time, but it must be borne in mind that the times for art were not at all favorable. West was a man about whom all the infant prodigy tales have been told, but he never grew to be a great artist. He was ambitious beyond his power, indulged in theatrical composition, was hot in color, and never was at ease in handling the brush. Most of his life was passed in England, where he had a vogue, was elected President of the Royal Academy, and became practically a British painter. Copley was more of an American than West, and more of a painter. Some of his portraits are exceptionally fine, and his figure pieces, like Charles I. demanding the Five Members of House of Commons are excellent in color and composition. C. W. Peale (1741-1827), a pupil of both Copley and West, was perhaps more fortunate in having celebrated characters like Washington for sitters than in his art. Trumbull (1756-1843) preserved on canvas the Revolutionary history of America and, all told, did it very well. Some of his compositions, portraits, and miniature heads in the Yale Art School at New Haven are drawn and painted in a masterful manner and are as valuable for their art as for the incidents which they portray.