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[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF A LADY.--[JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY.]]




ART IN AMERICA

A CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCH

BY

S. G. W. BENJAMIN

AUTHOR OF "CONTEMPORARY ART IN EUROPE" "WHAT IS ART" &c.

_ILLUSTRATED_

[Illustration]

NEW YORK

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS

FRANKLIN SQUARE

1880

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by

HARPER & BROTHERS,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

ERRATUM.

The cut on page 28, attributed to Rembrandt Peale, should be credited to
John T. Peele.




PREFACE.


The aim of this book has been to give a historical outline of the growth
of the arts in America. But while this has been the dominating idea in
the mind of the writer, criticism has necessarily entered, more or less,
into the preparation of the work, since only by weighing the differences
or the comparative merits of those artists who seemed best to illustrate
the various phases of American art has it been possible to trace its
progress from one step to another.

It is from no lack of appreciation of their talents that the author has
apparently neglected mention of the American artists resident in foreign
capitals--like Bridgman, Duveneck, Wight, Neal, Bacon, Benson, Ernest
Parton, Millet, Whistler, Dana, Blashfield, Miss Gardner, Miss Conant,
and many others who have done credit to American aesthetic culture. But
it was necessary to draw the line somewhere; and to discuss what our
artists are painting abroad would have at once enlarged the scope of the
work beyond the limits of the plan adopted. An exception has been made
in the case of our sculptors, because they have so uniformly lived and
wrought in Europe, and so large a proportion of them are still resident
there, that, were we to confine this branch of the subject only to the
sculptors now actually in America, there would be little left to say
about their department of our arts.

The author takes this occasion cordially to thank the artists and
amateurs who have kindly permitted copies of their paintings and
drawings to be engraved for this volume.




CONTENTS.


                                  PAGE

I.

EARLY AMERICAN ART                  13

II.

AMERICAN PAINTERS (1828-1878)       39

III.

AMERICAN PAINTERS (1828-1878)       66

IV.

AMERICAN PAINTERS (1828-1878)       97

V.

SCULPTURE IN AMERICA               134

VI.

PRESENT TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN ART 164




ILLUSTRATIONS.


SUBJECT.                                  ARTIST.                PAGE.

PORTRAIT OF A LADY                     _John Singleton Copley_ _Frontispiece_

FAMILY OF BISHOP BERKELEY              _John Smybert_              16

DEATH ON THE PALE HORSE                _Benjamin West_             19

DEATH OF MONTGOMERY                    _John Trumbull_             23

GENERAL KNOX                           _Gilbert Stuart_            25

"BEGGAR'S OPERA"                       _G. Stuart Newton_          27

"BABES IN THE WOOD"                    _Rembrandt Peale_           28

FANNY KEMBLE                           _Thomas Sully_              29

ARIADNE                                _John Vanderlyn_            30

THE HOURS                              _E. G. Malbone_             32

JEREMIAH                               _Washington Allston_        34

DYING HERCULES                         _Samuel F. B. Morse_        35

"MUMBLE THE PEG"                       _Henry Inman_               40

PORTRAIT OF PARKE GODWIN               _Thomas Le Clear_           43

PORTRAIT OF FLETCHER HARPER            _C. L. Elliott_             45

AN IDEAL HEAD                          _G. A. Baker_               48

THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS                 _Henry Peters Grey_         50

MIRANDA                                _Daniel Huntington_         53

A SURPRISE                             _William Sidney Mount_      55

TAKING THE VEIL                        _Robert Weir_               57

DESOLATION. FROM "THE COURSE OF EMPIRE"_Thomas Cole_               59

A STUDY FROM NATURE                    _A. B. Durand_              61

NOON BY THE SEA-SHORE.--BEVERLY BEACH  _J. F. Kensett_             63

ALTORF, BIRTH-PLACE OF WILLIAM TELL    _George L. Brown_