Gallery Tours: The Hudson River School

The Clove, Catskills, ca. 1826. Thomas Cole (1801–1848). Oil on canvas, 25 1/4 x 35 1/8 in. New Britain Museum of American Art, Charles F. Smith Fund, 1945.22.

The Hudson River School was not an actual school but a group of like-minded landscape painters who worked in a similar style from about 1825 to 1865. The growing number of crowded industrial cities in the East gave rise to an appreciation for pictures of the landscape untouched by man. The movement was fueled by the poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and by the conviction that God had given the American people an abundance of natural resources as a source of wealth and prosperity.

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Jon Rappleye’s Dreamscapes

The False Mirror, 1928. René Magritte (1898-1967). Oil on canvas, 21 1/4 x 31 7/8 in. The Museum of Modern Art. 133.1936

Following the First World War, Surrealist artists, such as Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), Yves Tanguy (1900-55) and René Magritte (1898-1967) employed in their imagery “meticulous detail, recognizable scenes and objects that are taken out of natural context, distorted and combined in fantastic ways as they might be in dreams.”¹ Dreams have long fascinated human beings. Many a philosopher, physician and layperson have theorized their purposes and meanings, but perhaps none more so than the artist. One such contemporary artist working in the Surrealist tradition of dreams is Jon Rappleye, whose work will be featured in the upcoming exhibit NEW/NOW: Jon Rappleye: After Eden opening at the New Britain Museum of American Art on July 30^th, 2010.

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Image Within an Image: Escher and the Droste Effect

Print Gallery, 1956. M.C. Escher. (1898-1972) Lithograph, 31.9 x 31.9 cm. Herakleidon Museum, Athens, Greece. All M.C. Escher works (c) The M.C. Escher Company B.V. – Baarn – the NETHERLANDS

Where have you seen the most famous M. C. Escher prints?  Many, such as Relativity and Reptiles, show up on math and science textbooks and are used in school lectures.  However, most are surprised to know that Escher had no formal training in mathematics.

Escher only received a high school education in mathematics and after graduating he enrolled in architecture school.  A week into his education, one of his teachers who happened to be the successful graphic artist Jessurun de Mesquita was impressed by a few of Escher’s lithocuts.  He asked Escher, “Wouldn’t you like to be a graphic artist instead of an architect?”  Considering that Escher did not particularly like architecture as a career choice, he agreed to study graphic design and never took another math course.

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Funding For the Arts In This Economy

The NEA symbol and motto

In a time when our economy is in a volatile state, we worry about maintaining the arts at all levels.  On the local level, schools face budget cuts each year, and many public schools are losing funds for their arts programs.  Most of the arts programs are supported by federal grants, and are not considered a fixed part of district budgets. Due to this, the funding for the arts is constantly in danger of being reduced. Across America, officials at the local, state, and federal levels understand the importance of the arts for community development and life.  There are many art advocates who are doing everything they can to provide a solid future for the arts in America, despite the tough economy.  

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Gallery Tours: Colonial Portraiture

Benjamin Colman, 1739. John Smibert (1688–1751). Oil on canvas, 49 3/4 x 39 3/4 in. New Britain Museum of American Art, Harriet Russell Stanley Fund, 1948.01.

Today, we are taking you on a tour of portrait paintings in the Colonial and Early Republican Art Gallery situated on the first floor of the NBMAA.

In 1607, religious and political unrest brought the first English settlers to Jamestown, Virginia. Europeans would continue to seek religious freedom and economic opportunity in the New World, as exemplified by the Puritans who arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. North America demanded a new way of life.

Unaccustomed to the land and its resources, the settlers had to learn to cultivate crops and survive in the wilderness. Only later, as cities grew, did commerce develop. The demands of everyday life delayed the introduction of art into American culture for generations. Thus, the earliest painting in the Museum’s collection dates to 1739.

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Struggle With the Truth: A Look at Forgeries

NO LONGER A VAN GOGH: Head of a Man. Unknown Artist. The National Gallery of Victoria, Australia.

Art Forgeries arebeing discovered more and more frequently as technology advances and scholarly research in the field develops. Although the production of fakes has not increased, art forgery reveals another side to the art world, a side that is clearly struggling with authenticity. Art forgers have become wealthy individuals because of their keen ability to scam the art world through their faux art. In the past century, fake art has earned over $5 billion for the forgers.  Many have been caught and punished for their crime, but it has not deterred others from trying to fool fool both the public and private realms.

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Collection Highlights: John La Farge

The End of Cook’s Bay, Island of Moorea, Society Islands, Dawn, 1891. John La Farge (1835-1910). Watercolor and gouache on paper, 14 3/4 x 22 in. New Britain Museum of American Art, Harriet Russell Stanley Fund, 1951.07.

John La Farge (1835-1910) was born into a wealthy family of French immigrants in New York City and was instructed by his father to pursue a career in law. Upon his father’s death, he moved to Rhode Island to study in the studio of William Morris Hunt (1824-1879). La Farge became interested in still life and landscape painting and had intentions of studying in Paris, but the impending Civil War halted his plans. Therefore, he remained in Rhode Island and enjoyed a prosperous lifestyle while continuing to paint. La Farge traveled to Japan in 1886 and the South Seas in 1890-91, with the famous author Henry Adams (1838-1918). Both trips influenced his subject matter greatly, and allowed him to vary his style. La Farge actively explored watercolor techniques during the whole of his career. Tragically, La Farge was committed to a mental institution in 1910 where he spent the last several months of his elderly life.

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Victorian Ideals in Pictorialist Photography: Gertrude Käsebier

The Picture Book (alternate title: Instruction), 1903. Gertrude Käsebier (1852-1934). Gravure print, 15.7 x 20.7 cm. Library of Congress. Published in Camera Work X, 1905.

The study of the female form has been a reccurring theme in artworks for millenia and many museum masterpieces focus on the exploration of a woman’s body . In the late 19^th century, this theme was often explored either as the study of beauty or as a representation of motherhood. The Pictorialist photographers concentrated their attention on softly focused images of elegantly dressed women that exuded a certain kind of mystery. Unfortunately, these photographs only showed the charm and stylishness of their sitters instead of the “individual[‘s] strength of character.” An affiliated theme is that of showing women and children occupied with a leisure activity or playing in a home or garden. These types of photographs interested both female and male photographers and they subsequently created images that showed romanticized versions of informal family life.

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Collection Highlights: Sol LeWitt

Horizontal Brushstrokes, 2003. Sol LeWitt (1928-2007). Gouache on paper, 60½ x 60½ in. New Britain Museum of American Art, Gift of the Artist, 2003.14.

Sol LeWitt, the internationally renowned conceptual and minimalist artist, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, but lived and was  educated in New Britain. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University in 1949. Before settling in New York, LeWitt served in the Korean War. He attended the School of Visual Arts and worked as a graphic designer at the firm of architect I.M. Pei (b. 1917). His artistic inspiration was also enhanced by the entry-level job that he held at the Museum of Modern Art. Over his lifetime, he was given three exhibitions at the New Britain Museum of American Art to which he donated 1,800 examples of his work.

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Norman Rockwell: The Vision Behind The Illustrator

The Problem We All Live With, 1964. Norman Rockwell (1894-1978). Oil on canvas. The Norman Rockwell Museum of Stockbridge.

Illustration art has not  beeen consistently deemed a true art form in America.  There are a number of reasons that surface which create doubt in people’s minds about illustration’s status as “true art.”  For instance, illustrators must abide by the wants and needs of their clients and audiences, possibly restricting their own artistic freedom.  In addition, illustration is not usually viewed in its original form, as it is mass produced for publication use and sale.  The public does not see the illustrations in their original form.  Many believe that the increased availability of the produced prints devalue the original illustrations themselves.  There were thousands of original works destroyed by publishers due to lack of interest in the artwork after it had served its initial purpose.  There is something disquieting about handling illustrations in this way.  Due to the enthusiasm of many artists and educators today, illustration is increasingly recognized as a true art form.

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