American / British Gallery Preview

Raphaelle Peale, Cutlet and Vegetables

Raphaelle Peale, born in 1774 in Annapolis, Maryland, was part of a family of artists, including his father, Charles Wilson Peale, who was known for portraits of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. From a young age, he collaborated with his father on numerous paintings. Peale began his career in 1810, diverging from his father’s portrait style to become recognized as one of the first professional still life painters in the United States. Although still life paintings were once considered outdated and unfashionable, Peale's works transformed public perception, restoring their respectability. His works were frequently exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1814 and 1818. Peale's legacy greatly enhanced the status of still life paintings in American art, showcasing his exceptional talent across the nation.

Martin Johnson Heade, The Magnolia Blossom

Martin Johnson Heade, born in 1819 in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, initially trained under Edward Hicks. He started his career painting portraits and traveled to Europe around 1838, making his professional debut in 1841. After a second European trip in 1848, Heade refined his style and exhibited more frequently. By the mid-1850s, he shifted his focus to landscapes, especially seascapes and paintings depicting the salt marshes in Massachusetts, influenced by his friendship with Frederic Edwin Church. In the late 1850s, Heade began exploring still-life painting and made several trips to South America where he started painting hummingbirds. He settled in Saint Augustine, Florida, in 1883, establishing a significant patronage with Henry Morrison Flagler. Although Heade was initially forgotten after his death in 1904, his reputation was revived in the 1940s.

Albert Bierstadt, Cho-looke, the Yosemite Fall

Albert Bierstadt, born in Germany in 1830, immigrated to New Bedford, Massachusetts, at a young age. Primarily self-taught, Bierstadt began his career in 1850 as a drawing instructor before heading to Europe for formal training. Studying in Düsseldorf with Emanuel Leutze and Worthington Whittredge, he returned to New Bedford in 1857 as a mature painter. He debuted in New York in 1858, impressing critics with his technical skills and becoming an honorary member of the National Academy of Design. In 1859, Bierstadt traveled to the Rocky Mountains with a survey party, bringing back sketches that would define his career as a premier painter of the American West. Bierstadt’s ability to capture the beauty of the Pacific Coast and Yosemite Valley make his works timelessly breathtaking and cement his legacy in American landscape painting.

Thomas Ball, Eve

Thomas Ball, born in 1819 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, began his artistic career at eighteen, painting miniature portraits in Boston and supplementing his income by singing in a church choir. After being encouraged to try sculpting, he quickly found success with a bust of singer Jenny Lind, which launched his career. In 1854, Ball traveled to Florence to study sculpture, joining a community of expatriate artists, including Hiram Powers and the Brownings. He lived and worked in Florence until 1897, exploring poetry and music while also writing his autobiography. As America began commemorating civic heroes, Ball rose to prominence, most notably for his equestrian statue of George Washington in Boston. He pioneered affordable domestic statuary in bronze and remained an expatriate with periodic trips to the U.S. until moving to Montclair, New Jersey, in 1897.

Fitz Henry Lane, Castine Harbor and Town

Fitz Henry Lane, born Nathaniel Rogers Lane in 1804 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, was paralyzed as a child, likely due to polio. Despite using crutches, Lane’s creative spirit persevered and he learned drawing in his teens. Lane moved to Boston for formal training at William S. Pendleton's lithography firm, where he produced illustrations for sheet music. Inspired by Robert Salmon, Lane began producing oil paintings by 1840 and earned recognition as a "Marine Painter." After moving back to Gloucester in 1848, he focused on the coastal scenery of Cape Ann. His mature style featured balanced compositions and radiant light effects, establishing his reputation as the pioneer of the "luminist" style. In the 1940s, Lane's reputation was revitalized by the donation of his works to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, reinstating him as a key figure in American art.

John Singleton Copley, Mrs. Thomas Gage

John Singleton Copley, born in Boston in 1738, has rightfully earned his place in the pantheon of great American painters. Copley experimented with various media, including oil, miniatures, pastel, and printmaking, but by the late 1750s, he had established himself as a portrait painter in Boston's mercantile society. His works have become symbols for the blossoming merchant class and America’s "coming of age" as an independent nation. Copley worked in Boston until 1774, when due to the impending revolution he fled to London. While he would never return to his country of birth, Copley flourished in his new home. While in London, he expanded his repertoire to historical painting, was elected a member of the Royal Academy, and remained a key figure in the British Art scene until his death.

About the European Interest in Turkish Themes

Eastman Johnson, The Cranberry Harvest, Island of Nantucket

Eastman Johnson, born in Lovell, Maine, in 1824, became one of the foremost genre painters in the United States, blending traditional subjects with refined techniques. He began his career with a crayon portrait studio in Augusta and later moved to Washington, D.C., where he sketched prominent figures of the U.S. Senate, including John Quincy Adams. In 1849, Johnson pursued formal training in Düsseldorf under Emanuel Luetze, and during his stay in The Hague, he found inspiration in the Dutch Old Masters, serving as a court painter to William III of Holland. Upon returning to the United States, Johnson explored national life themes through interior scenes and rural tableaux and was active in various art institutions, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

About the Reception of "The Cranberry Harvest, Island of Nantucket" in 1880

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Thomas Moran, Opus 24: Rome, from the Campagna, Sunset

Thomas Moran was born in 1837 in Bolton, England, before immigrating to the suburbs of Philadelphia with his family as a child. Initially an engraving apprentice, he eventually established his career as a painter. In 1862, Moran traveled to England, where his studies were heavily influenced by landscape artist J.W. Turner. In 1871, Moran accompanied F.V. Hayden's geological survey of Yellowstone as a guest artist. The artworks he created on this trip not only brought attention to Yellowstone but also cemented his reputation as one of America’s first artists to capture the American West. Moran continued to explore landscapes on his journeys to the Grand Canyon, the Mountain of the Holy Cross, and the American Southwest. His ability to capture light, color, and the vastness of a scene on a canvas ensures his paintings leave viewers awestruck.

About Italy and Classical Grand Prix de Rome

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Thomas Birch, An American Ship in Distress

Regarded as America's first marine artist, Birch is known for his paintings of the early American shipping industry and for a series devoted to the naval engagements of the War of 1812. He was also drawn to shipwrecks, the subject of some of his most distinctive paintings. In this unusually large work, a violent storm has damaged the masts, sails, and rigging of a ship. As the crew lowers a lifeboat from the stern, a rescue boat approaches from the right. A sidewheeler and another vessel come to the crew's aid from the left.​​​​​

John F. Peto, In the Library

John Frederick Peto, born in 1854 in Philadelphia, is now recognized as a master of trompe l'oeil still-life painting, though he was largely overlooked for many years. Predominantly self-taught, he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1877 and exhibited there the same year. Peto's illusionistic paintings - known for their melancholic tones and loose brushstrokes - were often mistaken for the work of his friend William Michael Harnett, with Harnett's signature sometimes forged on Peto's best paintings. Despite his obscurity during his lifetime, Peto's influence on American art is profound, acknowledged by artists like Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein. Johns signed his painting 4 the News, 1962, as 'Peto Johns,' and Lichtenstein’s Things on the Wall paid tribute to Peto's style. Today, Peto is celebrated for his significant contributions to American art.

Ella Ferris Pell, Salomé

Ella Ferris Pell, born in 1846 in St. Louis, Missouri, trained under William Rimmer at the Cooper Union School of Design for Women in New York City, graduating in 1870. Pell then traveled extensively across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East from 1872 to 1878. In the 1880s, she studied at the Académie des Beaux-Arts des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Returning to New York in 1892, Pell established herself as a versatile artist, excelling in painting, sculpture, illustration, and teaching. Influenced by Orientalism, her art often explored spiritual and mystical subjects with her paintings often exuding a sensuous aura of magical realism. Pell exhibited widely in New York galleries and European salons, earning respect and recognition.