American Paintings 1750–1900

On View: West Building, Main Floor

166 artworks on view.

Tall, billowing, lavender-purple and shell-pink clouds line the distant horizon over a vast plain of flat grassy land in this horizontal landscape painting. Closest to us to the lower left, a tree with a gnarled trunk and round, sage-green canopy sits mostly in shadow. A river curves from near the tree to cut across most of the landscape in a tight S-shape. One plump haystack, shaped like a giant teardrop, sits near a curve of the river in the vivid, lemon-lime field, to our left of center. One brown and one white cow graze across the river, to our right. Above tawny-brown hills lining the horizon, sunlight from our left turns the tops of the band of clouds pale pink, and the undersides are grayish-purple. The sky above is turquoise. The artist signed the lower right corner, “M J Heade.”

Sunlight and Shadow: The Newbury Marshes

Martin Johnson Heade

c. 1871/1875

Oil on canvas Accession ID 2010.74.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M65

This painting shows a winter landscape with snow-covered ground and tall, dark trees with straight trunks. The color palette is almost entirely white, gray, and black, with some dark brown leaves on the trees. Small gray shrubs and grass are visible peeking through the white snow, and the dense trees cast gray shadows. The sky beyond the trees is white.

Woods in Winter

Charles Warren Eaton

1886

Oil on canvas Accession ID 2015.162.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M65

This painting is a still life featuring several objects arranged in a line. On the far left is a red apple with its stem toward us. Next to it is a transparent glass goblet with a hint of golden liquid inside. To the right of the glass is a blue plate with a large yellow apple next to what look like dark red dates or raisins. Resting beside the plate is a thin brown twig with green leaves. Farthest to the right is a small round yellow cake with white frosting, decorated with a pink dot in the center of the frosting and four green ovals around it. The surface these objects rest on is light gray, and they cast dark shadows, indicating light coming from the left. The wall behind the objects is mostly black, which transitions into a lighter gray color on the far-right side of the painting.

Still Life with Apples, Sherry, and Tea Cake

Raphaelle Peale

1822

Oil on wood Accession ID 2014.18.35

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M69

The image displays a silver-colored jug with a large body adorned with a leaf pattern and a curved handle. The color scheme is primarily metallic silver with highlights and reflections. The jug is centered in the image with the spout slightly angled to the right and the handle on the left side.

Ewer

Simon Chaudron, Anthony Rasch

c. 1809/1812

Silver Accession ID 2020.159.3

Not on view

The image shows a large silver teapot with a unique spout shaped like an eagle's head, a dark handle, and intricate engravings. It has claw-footed legs, a finial on the lid, and an oval emblem on its side. The color scheme is mainly metallic silver with dark accents.

Five-Piece Tea/Coffee Service

Thomas Fletcher, Sidney Gardiner

c. 1815

Silver Accession ID 2020.159.1

Not on view

The image shows a large, polished silver pitcher with intricate bead detailing around its neck and base. The handle is sculpted in the form of a stylized animal, likely an eagle, with its head at the top of the handle and its body merging into the base. The color palette is predominantly silver, with various shades created by reflections and shadows, giving it a metallic shine. In the center of the pitcher, there is an engraved emblem or crest positioned prominently on the front face. The spout of the pitcher extends slightly forward, leading the eye from left to right across the image, while the handle curves from the back towards the right side.

Water Pitcher with Eagle Handle

Robert Swan, John McMullin

c. 1799/1831

Silver Accession ID 2020.159.5

Not on view

We look out across a band of broad, craggy boulders at an ocean bay dotted with boats in this horizontal landscape painting. The tops of the flat boulders are caramel brown in the sunlight and darker, rust-brown shadows down the sides. Smoke-gray fissures create web-like crevices across their surfaces. A few rocks sit atop the boulders, and a glassy pool created in a shallow near the lower right corner reflects the pale blue sky. The water beyond is a blend of aquamarine blue and bottle green with choppy waves that break and spray up white against the boulders. Two people wearing straw-colored hats are near the water on the far side of the boulders. One wears a red shirt, brown pants, and holds out a fishing rod. A basket sits near his feet nearby. Just to our left, a woman wearing a rose-pink dress sits and seems to look off into the distance. One sailboat is at the center of the composition in the distance, and several, even smaller touches of ivory-white along the horizon suggest more sailboats almost out of sight. Also hazy in the far distance, a finger of sand-brown land topped with pale, sage-green growth extends about halfway across the horizon, which comes about halfway up the composition. A few light gray clouds drift across the sky, which lightens from powder blue across the top to nearly white along the horizon. Several white birds with black wing tips fly over the water. The artist initialled and dated the lower left, “W.S.H 64.”

Narragansett Bay

William Stanley Haseltine

1864

Oil on canvas Accession ID 2010.10.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M64

Raspberries

Lilly Martin Spencer

c. 1859

Oil on canvas Accession ID 2005.161.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M69

A dented copper kettle rests on a forest-green tablecloth in this horizontal still life painting. The kettle takes up the left two-thirds of the composition, and the finial of the lid and the tall spout nearly reach the top edge of the painting. The spout is angled to our right, and the far side of the kettle beyond the spout falls into shadow. The lid sits loosely on the opening. A thin, yellow matchstick with a dark blue head lays flat on the tablecloth just in front of the kettle and below its spout. A tornado-shaped area gouge is dug out of the elephant-gray wall behind the kettle.

The Old Kettle

John Frederick Peto

c. 1890s

Oil on wood Accession ID 1999.79.31

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M69

Five O'Clock

Gretchen W. Rogers

c. 1910

Oil on canvas Accession ID 2022.131.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M70