01:082:368 Lecture Notes - Henry Ossawa Tanner, Childe Hassam, Picturesque
Lecture 1: Introduction;
Depicting the Civil War and Its Aftermath
itaube@arthist.rutgers.edu
⚫ What is American Art? How to define?
- A Post-national perspective. A cross-cultural outlook, beyond exceptionalism.
- Painting, sculpture, and photography in the context of other types of visual culture,
including expositions, exhibitions, and cartoons.
- Art produced in US, not necessarily by a US citizen, and those produced by US citizen but
in other areas.
⚫ Influence of European artist’s studios. Studio in New York based on European model.
⚫ European artistic movements, Cubism and German Expressionism.
⚫ Influence of Japanese art, and other Asian objects.
⚫ Course overview: mid-1860s to mid-1950s.
Realism to abstractionism. Representation of nature changed over time. Representation of
nude female figure, idealization to abstraction. Children, female children, gender.
Picturesque photography, and social issue photographs.
⚫ Syllabus: participation in class, come to class prepared to discuss the readings, articles in
Sakai and in textbook. Course images will be uploaded to Sakai after each class on
Wednesday.
- Assignments: two short writing assignments, reading response paper, compare and
contrast visual analysis paper. Not required to memorize dates, but need a framework
of an overall timeline of the artists and periods. All assignments need to be completed
to pass the course.
- Arrange ahead of time, before due dates. Do the readings before class. Writing
assignments, mind the due dates.
- Writing assignment #1, due Jan 31. Hard copy to class. 2 pages in length, no
introduction or conclusion. PART 1(1 ½ pages in length): detailed description of the
following art work at the Zimmerli Art museum. Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Good
Shepherd, 1902-03. Describe the painting, your own description. Spend time with art,
and writing about what we see, find the right word. PART 2 (1/2 page in the length):
imagine that you were going to do further research on this artwork, based on looking at
the artwork closely, the museum label and course readings, what 3 questions would you
ask about it?
⚫ Childe Hassam, Celia Thaxter’s Garden, Isles of Shoals, Maine, 1890, oil on canvas.
Things to consider describing arts: intimate close view, we are in the garden, view out in the
upper left corner, but brought back to the view by the bright color. Choices artists had
made.
THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865
Major causes for outbreak of war:
1. Debate about slavery
2. The secession from the union of South Carolina largely due to a dispute over the return
of fugitive slaves
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Dates of civil war: began in April 1861 with shelling of fort Sumter in South Carolina. Ended in
April 1865 with Southern surrender at Appomattox Virginia.
END SLAVERY IN THIS COUNTRY. Impact on character of the nation.
New type of warfare: new types of weapons (rifled muskets, explosive shells…), new types of
transportation for troops and supplies, new technology.
Problem of representation: how do you make visible the mutilations / destructions of war
without undermining the faith in the cause?
Civil war imagery: photographs, wood engravings published in magazines, paintings, sculptures.
Different motivations: sense of history/ documentation of events. Celebration of heroic soldiers
and statesmen. Memory keeping’ souvenirs.
Issues / themes: the reality effect (19th century viewers believe photographs to be truthful
though we now know they weren’t) the aestheticization of death. Response to earlier portrait
painting and history (battle) painting memorialization of the War.
CIVIL WAR PHOTOGRAPHY
Types of photography available:
Not reproducible: Daguerreotype (silver-coated copper plate)
Reproducible: Cate-de-visite (paper), Tintype (thin sheet of metal), Stereograph (3Dimage on
paper viewed in a stereoscope), Wet-plate negative
Daguerreotype: studio photography, fancy framing. Plain background. Elaborating framing:
need the glass to protect the metal surface.
Carte-de-visite or card photograph: could be widely distributed. Like baseball card. Inexpensive
form of photography.
Stereographic photograph: need a viewing stereographs as 3D images. Bring reality effect.
Wet-Plate collodion process: complicated, form of most of the war photographs. Albumen
prints. Allow immediate replication.
⚫ Mathew Brady, Portrait of Major General Ulysses s. Grant, Officer of the Federal (Union)
Army, 1864
Studio set up. Formal clothing.
⚫ Julian Vannerson, Portrait
⚫ Unknown photographers, Soldiers’ Photographs Received at the Dead Letter Office, 1861-
65.
⚫ Alexader Gardener, President Lincoln on Battle-Field of Antietam, albumen print made in
1866.
Stages photo op. taken the albumen print, attached it to another sheet of paper, written
the title, formal framing. Formality to the photo, shown to important people.
⚫ Photographs of ordinary everyday people. The photographs displayed compositional
conventions associated with genre painting. The photographs were discussed in the
language of painting. Seen through the lense of fine art when they were discussed.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Depicting the civil war and its aftermath itaube@arthist. rutgers. edu. Painting, sculpture, and photography in the context of other types of visual culture, including expositions, exhibitions, and cartoons. Art produced in us, not necessarily by a us citizen, and those produced by us citizen but in other areas. Studio in new york based on european model. European artistic movements, cubism and german expressionism. Influence of japanese art, and other asian objects. Representation of nude female figure, idealization to abstraction. Syllabus: participation in class, come to class prepared to discuss the readings, articles in. Course images will be uploaded to sakai after each class on. Assignments: two short writing assignments, reading response paper, compare and contrast visual analysis paper. Not required to memorize dates, but need a framework of an overall timeline of the artists and periods. All assignments need to be completed to pass the course. Arrange ahead of time, before due dates. 2 pages in length, no introduction or conclusion.
