American Paintings 1750–1900

On View: West Building, Main Floor

166 artworks on view.

Shown from the chest up, a cleanshaven man with pale, rosy skin and curled white hair looks off to our right against a dark, olive-green curtain in the background of this vertical portrait painting. His shoulders are angled slightly to our right, and he looks into the distance with blue eyes. His right brow, to our left, is arched, and his eyes are deeply set. His flushed cheeks and jowls sag a bit around his closed mouth, and there are lines under his eyes. His white gray hair seems to be pulled back from his forehead and swells in bushy curls over his ears. Part of a black ribbon seen beyond his shoulder may tie his hair back. He wears a bright white, high-necked, ruffled shirt under a black jacket. Light illuminates the man and the green curtain from our left.

James Madison

Gilbert Stuart

c. 1821

Oil on wood Accession ID 1979.4.2

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M60

Shown from the chest up, a clean shaven, middle-aged man with pale, rosy skin and curly, pewter-gray hair, looks at or toward us against a caramel-brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and he turns his face slightly to look our way with honey-brown eyes under straight, faint eyebrows. He has a long, prominent nose, and his pink lips are closed in a straight line. His gray hair is parted in the middle, curls around his face, and down the back of his neck. He wears a bright white, high-necked, ruffled shirt under a velvety black jacket. Light illuminating the man from our left creates a golden glow on the light brown background behind him.

Thomas Jefferson

Gilbert Stuart

c. 1821

Oil on wood Accession ID 1986.71.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M60

A pale-skinned woman wearing a shimmering, pearl-white dress stands next to a harp, which is taller than she is, in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body faces us, but she angles her head slightly to our right. She looks up and off into the distance with gray-blue eyes under dark, curved brows. She has an oval face with a narrow chin. Her cheeks are flushed, and her full pink lips are closed. Her hair is pulled up, and chin-length curls frame her face. A ruffle, perhaps of lace, lines the low neckline of her dress, which has a sheen suggesting satin or silk. The gown has short, cap sleeves and falls in a narrow A-line to her pointed white shoes. One foot rests on a pedal at the base of the harp, and behind her is a low stool with a round, dark orange upholstered seat and a wood pedestal base. A topaz-blue brocade-patterned scarf with fringed narrow ends falls over one of the woman’s shoulders, down her back, across the stool, and then puddles on the floor. The woman’s right arm, on our left, rests over the upward curving neck of the harp. She holds a T-shaped tuning key in that hand. Her other hand reaches across her body to touch the strings. The crown of the harp is ornately carved with leaves, and the instruments rests on low, clawed feet. The carpet or floor is patterned with concentric circles and patterned rings in peach, moss green, soft yellow, and pink. A gray stone column rises to our right behind the woman, and a ledge spans the rest of the space behind her. The landscape beyond has hills and trees leading back to the horizon, which comes about halfway up the composition. Parchment-brown clouds swirl against a muted blue sky above. The artist signed the work as if his initials and date were written on the base of the harp. The intwined letters T and S are followed by the date, 1818.

Lady with a Harp: Eliza Ridgely

Thomas Sully

1818

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1945.9.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M62

Shown from the chest up, a cleanshaven, middle-aged man with pale skin and silvery gray hair, wearing a white, ruffled shirt under a velvety black, high-necked jacket, looks out at us in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and he turns his face slightly to look at us with gray eyes under slightly arched eyebrows. He has a long nose and his thin lips are closed in a straight line. Shadows define slightly sagging jowls along his jawline and down his neck. His light gray hair is pulled back from his forehead and swells in bushy curls over his ears. Part of a black ribbon seen beyond his shoulder ties his hair back. Light illuminates the person from our left and creates a golden glow on the light brown background behind him.

George Washington

Gilbert Stuart

c. 1821

Oil on wood Accession ID 1979.5.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M60

Josephine and Mercie

Edmund Charles Tarbell

1908

Oil on canvas Accession ID 2014.136.8

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M70

Shown from the chest up, a balding, light-skinned man wears a port-red vest and coat in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s shoulders are angled to our right, but he turns his head to look at us from the corners of gray eyes under heavy, brown brows. His under-eyes are shaded blue and lined with wrinkles. He has a bumped nose, bow-shaped lips, a round chin, fleshy, flushed cheeks, and sagging jowls. His white hair sweeps up and to either side of a bald patch, painted with a white sheen, on the top of his head. Curls come down over each ear and longer hair in the back is tied with a black ribbon. He wears a white ruffled cravat under the deep red vest and coat, both of which have gold-colored buttons down the front. The background lightens from earth brown in the upper left corner to paler, peanut brown in the lower right.

John Adams

Gilbert Stuart

c. 1821

Oil on wood Accession ID 1979.4.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M60

Young Woman in White

Robert Henri

1904

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1949.9.1

Not on view

We look across a cavernous room with a half-domed ceiling where more than a hundred men are gathered at desks and theater-like boxes in this horizontal painting. Almost all of the men have pale, peachy skin and wear black suits with white high-pointed collars. The desks curve in a half-circle facing our left, where two candelabras sit on a dais, a canopied space with polished columns. Seven more columns lining the rounded space are also speckled with fawn brown, bronze, copper, and muted moss green. They have white capitals carved with leaves ands scrolls. Crimson-red curtains hung between the columns have been gathered up along their centers so they drape down to each side. The space is lit by a three-tiered chandelier near the center of the composition. The chandelier has been lowered and a man, backlit in silhouette, stands on a ladder and reaches for a light on the top tier. The other men sit singly or in groups at the desks or gather in small groups throughout the space. The D-shaped rows of desks are enclosed within a curving, waist-high wall. To our right, on our side of the wall, a pair of boys or men lean over an open box that is lit inside. A few people look on from a second-level balcony to our right. This includes a trio of men all wearing black. In the next bay, a man with medium-brown skin wears Pawnee attire with a tall headdress, necklaces, and what seems to be a fur-lined cloak. He looks out at us. A clock on the wall near him reads 6:14. The domed space has nested, ivory-white square or octagonal panels within gold borders. At the center of each panel is a six-petaled, gold flower. The artist signed the work as if he had written his name and date on the base of the wall to our left: “S.F.B. MORSE pinx 1822.”

The House of Representatives

Samuel F. B. Morse

1822, probably reworked 1823

Oil on canvas Accession ID 2014.79.27

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M62

Near the center of the painting, a masted wooden ship floats against a vibrant sunset that fades from lilac purple to carnation pink along the horizon line, which comes about a quarter of the way up this horizontal landscape. The boat is angled away from us and to our left with one sail tied up near the top of one of the two tall masts. Four people stand on the lumber-filled deck and tie up other sails. A second boat floats in the distance, its rigging and masts silhouetted against the vivid pink sky. The water is deep blue along the bottom edge of the canvas and lightens where it meets the hills along the horizon. Slivers of wispy slate-gray clouds sweep across the sky.

Lumber Schooners at Evening on Penobscot Bay

Fitz Henry Lane

1863

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1980.29.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M67

A woman with smooth, pale skin and wearing a hat, long dress, and gloves, stands holding a bunch of pumpkin-orange leaves against a background of trees painted with touches of rust orange and pine green in this vertical painting. The woman tips her head back slightly to look at us with dark eyes under arched eyebrows. Her cheeks are flushed and her coral-pink lips closed. Her round black hat perches on the back of her head and she has an inky black, long-sleeved, hip-length jacket with bronze trim at the shoulders, cuffs, and down the front. A gauzy bow is tied at her neck. Her left elbow, on our right, is bent and she holds up her tan-colored, ruffled skirt with a white-gloved hand. The raised skirt exposes sky-blue lining and white, ruffled flounces at her feet. Her right arm, on our left, hangs at her side and holds the handle of a basket. Deep marigold-orange leaves cascade out of the basket. One black shoe peeks out from under her long skirt. She stands on a hill carpeted with crimson-red, tawny-brown, golden yellow, and forest-green leaves. The space behind her is filled with touches and dabs of red, orange, brown, black, and tan.

Autumn

Winslow Homer

1877

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1985.64.22

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M68

Shown from the knees up, a woman wearing a shimmering teal-blue gown and holding a garland of flowers stands in front of columns and a landscape in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body faces us, but she turns her head slightly to our left as she looks at us with dark brown eyes. Her skin is pale, nearly the color white, and she has rosy cheeks. She has an oval face, a long, thin nose, the suggestion of a double chin, and her peach-colored lips are closed. Her brown hair is pulled back under a lacy cap, and she wears dime-sized sapphire earrings rimmed with gleaming silver or diamonds. A pendant with three round sapphires and a larger, teardrop-shaped gem hangs from a choker made of thumbprint-sized sapphires. The edges of a white bow, presumably tying her hair, curl to either side of her neck. Her tight-fitting bodice has a square, lace-edged neckline and white ribbons tied down the front. Long, lacy cuffs fall from elbow-length sleeves, and the full skirt falls in vertical folds from the cinched waist. The teal fabric has a sheen, suggesting silk or satin. A pink rose as well as white, yellow, orange, and blue flowers are tied to a pink ribbon to create a garland, which she holds with both hands. Tan-colored stone columns lining the painting to either side behind her are connected by a balustrade, all of which frames a view out to a tall, light green tree and a blue sky touched with pink along the horizon. A coral-pink curtain hangs in the top right corner.

Anne Fairchild Bowler (Mrs. Metcalf Bowler)

John Singleton Copley

c. 1763

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1968.1.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M60

A pale-skinned, clean-shaven man with a heavily lined, paunchy face sits against a green and red wall in this vertical portrait painting. The man sits in a wooden chair painted forest green and rests both hands on the closer arm. His body and knees are angled to our left, and he turns his wide, square face to look at with heavy-lidded eyes. One brow seems slightly cocked, and he has a large nose. His lips are pulled up on one side over a round double chin. He wears a white, shoulder-length wig and a sable-brown suit. The cuffs of a white shirt are visible at his wrists where his hands are stacked on the arm of the chair. The knee-length breeches are buckled at the knee over black stockings. His legs are crossed away from us, and his feet extend off the bottom edge of the composition. The bottom half of the wall behind him is painted burgundy red up to and including a chair rail, and the wall above is moss green. The wall is lined with a gold scallop pattern along the top of the chair rail and a sliver of brown on across the bottom of the composition suggests a wood floor. The artist signed and dated the painting as if he had inscribed the red wall near the man’s knees, “John Singleton Copley pinx 1772. Boston.”

Eleazer Tyng

John Singleton Copley

1772

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1965.6.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M60