Mfa project
One of Gilbert Stuart's most famous portraits of George Washington, this painting named "Washington at Dorchester Heights" was painted in 1806. The painting was commissioned 30 years after the battle of Dorchester Heights as a commemorative painting. It depicts Washington as an older, serious hero standing in front of Boston and the British navy which were under fire from the fortifications at Dorchester Heights. The painting is very dark depicting America's emergence from the shady and dark revolution. Washington and his stallion are the only two objects in the painting that are bright and are nearly glowing. The dark background emphasizes Washington and his pose which portray him as a confident and stern founding father. As a symbol of America and its identity, Washington stats proud and strong which reflects on the new countries hopeful outlook on the future.
Yet another Gilbert Stuart portrait, this one depicts General Henry Knox and was painted circa 1805. Henry Knox has been credited with allowing the revolutionists to take Boston back by safely transporting 60 cannons from Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York to Dorchester heights. It was Knox's cannons that won the war in Boston, and so Stuart, recognizing the importance of Knox's cannons, decided to pose Knox with a cannon barrel. Once again Gilbert Stuart uses light and dark careful to accentuate Knox's importance in the painting by making the background black smoke. With a hand on his hip, Knox also appears triumphant and confident which reflected a strong feeling that was deranging American identity at the time.
This is a famous portrait of Paul Revere painted in 1768 by John Singleton Copley. When this painting was done, Paul Revere was 33 years-old and was already an accomplished silversmith. The portrait does an amazing job summing up American's proud identity. Instead of posing in the fanciest of clothes, Paul Revere decided to wear simple clothes that he would wear for work, a plain linen shirt and open waistcoat. On the table and in his hand are the tools of his trade and an example of the product of his labor. This style of painting reflecting a person's true job was rare within European countries because they valued wealth and power while Americans, such as Paul Revere, were proud of their craft and wanted to be reflected as a craftsman instead of an aristocrat.
Painted by American John Neagle circa 1826, this portrait depicts the extremely successful, rich, and powerful Pat Lyon working at a forge. Lyon had very humble beginnings as a blacksmith and although by the time this painting was made he was extremely wealthy, he decided that his portrait should reflect his humble beginnings rather than his pompous destination. This idea of having a portrait done depicting a rich man as a craftsman shows the pride in ones beginnings that helped define the American identity of the time. The tower in the background belongs to Philadelphia's Walnut Street Jail, where Lyon had been impassioned after being falsely accused of theft. Instead of forgetting his darkest moments, Lyon decided to celebrate then and include them in his portrait which speaks volumes about American dignity and lack of shame for a job.
Albert Bierstadt, a German born American painted many American landscapes that emphasize American beauty and peaceful settling of the untouched lands. This particular painting entitled, "View from the Wind River Mountains, Wyoming" depicts the beautiful lands of Wyoming, which was not yet a state at the time of painting. This vast open land as far as the eye can see was a distinct experience that was rare in Europe. Especially in Britain where the land had been colonized for thousands of years, North America, and the west in particular, was still a very virgin untouched land. Bierstadt's use of golden greens and golden browns gives the landscape a royal magnificence which was a common feeling of the American people. The settlers moving west, which are probably the people in the paining, saw this amazing land as opportunity that was unavailable in the rest of the world. A mix of Manifest Destiny, yearning for land, and a genuine sense of exploration, the American settlers were unlike any others. These American settlers explored and expanded by their own will, not by a command or payment, and it was this genuine exploration that defined early American identity.
This painting, known as "The Passage of the Delaware," was painted by Tomas Sully in 1819. The painting depicts general George Washington on Christmas night with his troops crossing the icy Delaware River from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. Thanks to Washington's brilliant strategic move, the revolutionists won the famous Brattle of trenton the next day that became a vital turning point in the Revolution. Thanks to his incredible leadership, and importance in American independence, Washington became a symbol of American pride and identity and this painting shows an amazing depiction of the young country. Sitting on a flawless white stallion, Washington confidently looks into the distance with his hands on his hips giving him an aura of power ad stability. The majority of the painting is very dark, from the stormy clime to the dark and hazy rive, the only beacon of light in the painting is Washington and his stallion. This painting was done after the War of 1812 during a hight in American pride when images of Washington were in high demand. Sully painted it based on his imagination and own feeling of American identity emphasizing Washington's looks and leadership pose.
Painted by the famous John Trumbull circa 1822, this painting, entitled "The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775," depicts the Battle of Bunker Hill. The focus of the painting is General Joseph Warren's death. General Warren was a Massachusetts politician and doctor who became revolutionary leader. Wearing pure, white clothes, Warren is the brightest person in the painting and is surrounded by a bright light from the Heavens. The war was not a true success because the revolutionists had to retreat, but it is still known as a pyrrhic victory due to the fact that the British losses outnumbered the revolutionist losses. This painting is known as one of the most representative of the entire Revolutionary War because of the interesting interplay between the British troops and Revolutionists. Charging towards Warren is British Major Small brandishing a sword. Trumbull focused the painting on the encounter between the two as a it was a representation of the larger war; a dedicated revolutionist who joined the war as an unpaid volunteer willing to give up his life for the case against a decorated, bureaucratic European Major who is killing and dying for a paycheck, not for a cause. This battle marked the first major revolutionist win and it forced the British to view the revolutionaries as a serious threat.
This is a fragment of Oak that came from the revolutionist battleship, Niagara. The ship was a piece of stanchion from the battleship that Oliver Hazard Perry commanded into battle against the British at the battle of Lake Erie on September 10th, 1813. The Battle of Lake Erie was an important turning point in the war of 1812 as it secured the lake for the Americans for the rest of the war. This stopped supplies and food from getting to British troops deep in American territory which in turn forced the British to retreat back to Canada. This battle was vital in raising American moral, as it was one of the first American victories in the war of 1812, and this victory led to other successful battles against the British. The story of the Battle of Lake Erie shows the determination and persistence that was integral to American success; after Perry's flagship, the Lawrence, was destroyed in the battle, Perry rowed half a mile under heavy cannon fire with the flag to the new flagship, the Niagara.
Winslow Homer painted this painting, "The Fog Warning," in 1885. It depicts a halibut fisher rowing back to the mothership in his little dory. While the fisherman is successful, as seen by the massive halibut in his dory, the hardest part is still ahead, making it back safe. Homer painted this painting while living in Prout's Neck, Maine, where this sort of scene occurred far too often. In the distance is an impending storm which could mean the death of the fisherman, although Homer careful created this masterpiece to not tell the fisherman's fate, whether or not he survives is up to the observer to decide. Although fishing was not a prestigious job, American fishermen still had great pride in their work, a pride that was hard to find in the rest of the world.
One of the nations three most cherished historical treasures, the Sons of Liberty Bowl was made by Paul Revere Jr. in 1769 celebrating the "Glorious Ninety-Two," members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives who agreed with the protesting of the Townshend Acts in 1767. These acts were taxes that hit tea, paper, and other vital commodities. Revolutionsists complained that it was "taxation without representation," meaning that they were being taxed without having a representative in the taxing body, British Parliament. The bowl represents American spirit and civil disobedience towards the British oppressors. The beautifully crafted bowl also shows that the American revolution did not occur because of mob mentality, but because of carefully crafted arguments that intelligent and handy American had for becoming a separate country.
Entitled the "Valley of the Yosemite," this painting was created by Albert Bierstadt upon his return from his first trip to California. Bierstadt was amazed by the beauty in American landscapes and the stunning, untouched nature that was still abundant in the United States. He later wrote to his friend saying that the Valley of the Yosemite surpassed the Alps in waterfalls and the Himalayas in precipices. This natural beauty that America possessed was a proud possession of the burgeoning nation as natural perfection was becoming a rarity in the developed, industrialized world. This painting also depicts the fertile open lands that attracted hundreds of thousands of people west under the ideas of Manifest Destiny.