THEME: The Maier Museum’s collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American art is a treasury of diverse visual expressions of our cultural heritage. Discover how American artists have portrayed people, places and ideas. Experience how art affects us individually, and contributes to our understanding of the world.

TOUR OVERVIEW:

Gallery 2: 1800 - 1850 (8 minutes)
Highlights: early portraiture, early landscapes, A Peaceable Kingdom
SOLs:
Art: 5.15, 5.16, 5.18, 5.21, 5.22, 5.23
English: 5.1
History and Social Science: VS.1,VS.6, USI.1, VUS.1

• Early portraiture
From colonial times into the nineteenth century, art was a luxury for most Americans. For those with the means and desire to buy art, portraits preserved the likenesses of family members and community leaders. This gallery contains a portrait of Mrs. Polly Hooper by Gilbert Stuart who also painted several portraits of George Washington, the most famous of which is reproduced on the dollar bill.

• Early landscapes
For early American landscape artists, the seemingly endless expanse of the American wilderness symbolized the country’s potential for greatness. Hudson River School artists Thomas Cole, Asher Durand and John Frederick Kensett led the way with paintings of panoramic views rendered with precise detail. These serene and awe-inspiring vistas, in which a small figure often communes with nature, were intended to evoke elevated thoughts and feelings as well as immense pride in America. Virginia artist Flavius Fisher paints a luminous depiction of Virginia’s Dismal Swamp.

• A Peaceable Kingdom
The expansion of colonies and religious and cultural attitudes is reflected in the work of self-taught painter Edward Hicks’ view of William Penn negotiating a treaty with some of the First Americans. The setting is inspired by a specific literary reference from the Bible illustrating an ideal vision of civilized peace.

Gallery 3: 1850 - 1910 (8 minutes)
Highlights: American Impressionism, developments in portraiture
SOLs
Art: 5.15, 5.16, 5.18, 5.21, 5.22, 5.23
English: 5.1
History and Social Science: USI.1, USII.1, USII.3

• American Impressionism: painting with light
During and following the Civil War American artists adopted many styles of European art to an unprecedented degree as they flocked there to study in the famous academies. Deriving their style from French Impressionists, the American Impressionists used loose brushstrokes and pastel colors to capture the effects of sunlight and atmosphere. They painted out-of-doors instead of in the studio, in order to directly capture the quality of light. They were not concerned with rendering precise details, but instead wanted to capture the impression of a moment in time.

• Developments in portraiture
Portraiture by Thomas Eakins, William Merrit Chase, and Marian Boyd Allen convey more information about their subjects’ personalities and professions than do the earlier portraits from Gallery 2, in which depicting the sitter’s likeness in a pleasing manner was usually the sole objective.

Gallery 4: 1910 - 1950 (8 minutes)
Highlights: Ashcan School, Regionalism, ethnic identity, abstraction
SOLs
Art: 5.15, 5.16, 5.18, 5.21, 5.22, 5.23
English: 5.1
History and Social Science USII.3, USII.5

• Ashcan School
In the early twentieth century, a group of New York artists including Robert Henri, George Bellows, and John Sloan, reacted against the genteel subject matter of Impressionism. These painters came to be called the Ashcan School or New York Realists. They replaced idyllic countrysides and leisure class interiors with urban themes. Henri’s straightforward portrait of young Tom differs dramatically from Frederick Carl Frieseke’s Impressionist rendering of a beautiful woman lounging in her elegant sunlit boudoir in Gallery 3.

• Ethnic identity
Jacob Lawrence, one of America’s best-known African-American artists, looked back to the Civil War era for inspiration when he created John Brown’s Arsenal, depicting the famous Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, uprising in an unexpected way. Lawrence grew up in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s, an arts movement that was inspired by the Ashcan School and sought to combine realism, ethnic consciousness, and Americanism.

• Regionalism
Regionalism was also philosophically related to the Ashcan School and arose in the 1930s. Rejecting abstraction, Regionalists were especially devoted to capturing scenes of rural life. They felt the places and people of America’s heartland truly captured the American spirit. Their outlook has often been linked to the country's isolationism between World War I and World War II. Thomas Hart Benton was the most vocal proponent of Regionalism and his painting Preparing the Bill illustrates a distinctly American scene.

• Abstraction: the beginnings of a uniquely American style
Georgia O’Keeffe, probably the most famous American woman artist, and her colleague Arthur Dove were part of a modern approach to making art and created some of the early abstractions that led to what is widely considered the first purely American art style, free from European influence: Abstract Expressionism.

Galleries 5 & 6: Special Exhibition
SOLs
Art: 5.15, 5.16, 5.18, 5.21, 5.22, 5.23
English: 5.1

TOUR TECHNIQUE:
Maier Museum of Art docents use an inquiry-discussion method in conducting tours, designed for maximum interaction. Throughout the tour, your students will be engaged in fulfilling English SOL 5.1a: “The student will listen, draw conclusions, and share responses in subject-related group learning activities: a) Participate in and contribute to discussions across content areas.”