American Paintings 1750–1900

On View: West Building, Main Floor

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173 artworks on view.

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This is a painting of an outdoor scene with a group of people gathered in front of a blue-gray wooden building with a dark door and two windows. Sunflowers grow on either side of the entrance, stretching up to the windows. The ground is painted in patches of tan, brown, and gray, perhaps indicating stone steps or a path. To the left of center is a group of shapes and colors that suggest four or five people gathered together on the ground. The people are painted with rough brushstrokes and have no distinct details or facial features. Their clothes are painted in shades of white, tan, gray, red, and pale blue, and appear to include dresses, bonnets, shirts, and suspenders. Their skin seems to be painted in shades of dark brown. There is a small stool or chair in the bottom right corner, and in the top left corner is a green area with white birds visible.

Sketch of a Cottage Yard

Winslow Homer

c. 1876

Oil on academy board  Accession ID  2014.136.83

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M68
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A shallow bowl filled with oranges, grapes, and nuts is surrounded by a short, flaring glass, a glass decanter, a lemon, and more nuts arranged along a wooden tabletop in this horizontal still life painting. The objects nearly fill the composition, and the table extends off both sides. The three oranges are pale, with the one at the center nearly yellow, and a stem of dark green leaves lies across the top. A bunch of shriveled grapes, like raisins still on the vine, lies across the almonds and other nuts, all in their shells, in the bowl. The outside of the bowl is white, and it has a gently scalloped rim. A lemon sits to our left of the bowl of fruit, and behind it, the glass decanter has a teardrop-shaped glass stopper. Light coming from the front and our left makes the peachy liquid glow. To our right are four whole walnuts in their shells, with a few grapes hanging from the bowl. Behind the walnuts, a long stemmed, flaring, clear glass is almost filled with the peach-colored liquid. The background is deeply shadowed at the upper left, lightening slightly to elephant gray toward the lower right. The artist inscribed the painting as if he had written his name, date, and location on the front edge of the table, near the lower right corner: “Raphaelle Peale Aug: 5th 1814 Philad:”

A Dessert

Raphaelle Peale

1814

Oil on wood  Accession ID  1999.44.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M69
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This painting shows a woman in profile, sitting at a wooden table strewn with papers, her body angled away from us. She has pale skin and rosy cheeks, and her light brown hair is tied up and adorned with a light blue headband. She wears a light-colored gown that appears mostly white, but also has streaks of light pink, yellow, pale green, and light blue. She is writing on one of the sheets of paper that is scattered on the table. Six potted plants with long green stems and white flowers line the edge of the table across from her. She sits in a room with a brownish-gray wooden floor and pale green walls. There is a bookshelf to the left of the woman, with a framed photograph, a small bowl, and three long white candlesticks of varying heights on top of it. Above the bookshelf is a tall window ledge which is also lined with leafy plants in pink, yellow, light blue, and white pots. White light shines in from between the plants, casting a bright glow on the back of the woman and faint shadows below the table and the chair she sits on. The brushstrokes of the painting, especially those in the background, are visible, giving the painting a slightly hazy quality.

The Writer

Mary Bradish Titcomb

c. 1912

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2023.135.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M70
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Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned man with rosy cheeks looks at us in front of a window opening in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body is angled to our left, but he turns his head to look at us with blue eyes under smooth brows. His chestnut-brown hair is brushed off his high forehead, which slopes down to a wide nose, notably flushed cheeks, and closed pink lips. A white cravat is knotted at his throat, and his left hand, to our right, rests on his hip so it pulls back the dark brown coat he wears. The coat has flaring sleeves and silver embroidery. Translucent ivory-white cuffs of his shirt rest along the backs of his hands. His long aqua-blue vest has a floral brocade pattern and elaborate embroidery of flowers and leaves down the buttoned opening of the front, around the scalloped pocket we see, and along the bottom hem, which comes to about mid-thigh. The man holds a black tricorner hat in his right hand, to our left, by that hip. Shimmering fern-green fabric hangs in folds and swags along the left edge of the painting in front of an ash-brown wall. The rectangular window opening is to our left. A volute climbs up the lower right corner of the opening, its scrolling bulk resembling a snail’s shell. A twilight sky glows over a few treetops in the landscape beyond. The artist signed the painting as if he had inscribed the front of the windowsill. Text reads, “I: Blackburn Pinx.”

Portrait of a Gentleman

Joseph Blackburn

c. 1760

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2014.79.7

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M62
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The sculpture is a candelabrum with multiple intricate branches for holding candles. It features a large circular bowl with floral patterns, garlands, and scrollwork. Winged female figures support the bowl, adding an ornate touch. The base incorporates decorative elements and rests on legs resembling lion paws. The sculpture is made of silver, giving it a polished appearance. It showcases exceptional craftsmanship and decorative motifs, exuding elegance. The design suggests it is intended as a centerpiece.

Presentation Candelabrum for Commodore Stephen Decatur

Andrew Ellicott Warner

1817

Silver, partially gilded  Accession ID  2018.203.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M62
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This painting depicts a body of water surrounded by mountains and dotted with small, tree-filled islands. At the bottom of the painting is a green area with several tall trees and a small dirt path. Beyond this area, a hill slopes down to the water below. The water is painted in light blue and gray tones, and the hazy mountains beyond the water are painted in light greens and blues. The blue sky above the scene is full of puffy white clouds.

Lake George

John William Casilear

after 1851

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2014.136.120

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M64
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A large, dark sailing ship to our left is stranded near the shore, angled dramatically away from us, in choppy waves under a periwinkle-blue sky streaked with gray and copper-colored clouds in this horizontal painting. Two tall masts on the ship angle steeply away, showing that the boat nearly lies on its side. The third mast is broken. The rigging is askew and the sails are tattered. Light catches a steel-blue band around the deck. Broken pieces of masts, swaths of limp, gray sails, thick rope, and a wooden barrel on its side are scattered along the beach in front of us. Bottle-green waves break gently on the beach, but white foam kicks up around the hull. Low, bronze-brown rocks jut outwards from the beach to our left. To our right, a pale, yellow sun glows hazily just over the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the canvas. The dark gray clouds brighten to pale yellow, lavender purple, and mauve pink along the edges and near the sun. The artist signed and dated the painting as if he had inscribed a board lying in the shadow cast by the barrel in the lower right corner: “A.B.Durand 1884.”

The Stranded Ship

Asher Brown Durand

1844

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2003.71.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M64
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This painting depicts a snowy forest scene with a path running through tall, leafless trees. On the path in the center of the painting, two men are pulling a sled loaded with barrels towards the right, while a small child sits on the barrels, holding a wooden bucket. The men wear long pants, vests, and hats in shades of blue, brown, black, red, and tan, while the child wears brown pants and a green jacket with a white scarf and a blue hat. All three people have light skin and brown hair. The forest around them is dense, made up of mostly brown trees and branches with a hint of pale gray sky in the background. Behind the people, in the trees, there also appears to be a small wooden structure with a faint orange fire.

On Their Way to Camp

Eastman Johnson

1873

Oil on board  Accession ID  2008.66.2

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M68
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In this painting, there are two round, crusty rolls next to a cream-colored cup with a floral blue-and-yellow design on top of a saucer with a gold rim. The rolls are in the lower left, while the cup is placed slightly to the right of center. The rolls are dark brown on the top, golden on some sides, and white on the other sides. A light brown object lies horizontally on the right in front of the saucer, perhaps the handle of a utensil. The surface the objects rest on is a counter with a light blue top and a dark brown base. Behind the objects, the background is dark red with some black shadows.

Breakfast

John Frederick Peto

c. 1890s

Oil on academy board  Accession ID  1999.79.29

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M69
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A speckled yellow apple and bunches of purple and green grapes are arranged next to an intricately pierced white bowl piled with more apples and grapes in this almost square still life painting. The objects sit on a sand-colored stone ledge, and the fruit gleams in bright light coming from the upper left. Sitting to the left of the basket, the yellow apple has brown spots and a worm hole near the top. In front of it, the green grapes partially cascade over the front edge of the ledge. The purple grapes lie in the shadow behind the apple. The white bowl has a wide, flaring mouth rimmed with dark blue, and sits to our right of center. It is pierced with four rows of narrowly spaced, undulating waves that spread out from a central eight-sided medallion. One red and two more yellow apples, one of which also has a small wormhole, sit along the lip of the bowl. They are topped by a cluster of green grapes framed by green leaves and a stem that angles into the upper right corner of the painting. The background is silvery gray to our right, where the light falls, and is in black shadow in the upper left.

Fruit Still Life with Chinese Export Basket

James Peale

1824

Oil on wood  Accession ID  1990.7.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M69
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Still Life with Crab Apples and Grapes

Joseph Decker

1888

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2020.162.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M69
This painting depicts a man seated in a chair and facing forward, with his head slightly turned to the left. He has light brown skin, short black hair, prominent sideburns, and brown eyes, with his face is in a neutral expression. His left arm rests over the back of the gilded wooden chair he sits in, and his right hand is tucked into his suit jacket. He is dressed in a black coat with large gold buttons running down the front and on the cuffs. Under the coat is a stiff white collar and a black kerchief or tie, as well as a square orange gem set in gold. The background is mostly a gray-green wall, but on the left side there is a thin vertical window showing a view of a green river with a steamboat on it and rocky red cliffs covered in green trees under a cloudy blue sky.

Portrait of a Man (Possibly Peter Vogelsang Sr.)

American 19th Century

probably 1829

Oil on wood  Accession ID  1953.5.22

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M63
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