American Portraiture/American Identity: Transformations in ...

American Portraiture/American Identity: Transformations in American Art 1730-1860

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Graduate School of Western Carolina University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History.

By Matthew Robert Blaylock

Director: Dr. Jessica Swigger Associate Professor of History

History Department Committee Members: Dr. Mary Ella Engel, History

Dr. Elizabeth Gillespie McRae, History May 2011

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my committee members and director for their assistance and encouragement. In particular, my thesis director, Dr. Jessica Swigger, whose help and support was unending throughout a long and difficult project.

I also extend sincere thanks to the following people, without whom this thesis would not have been possible: Dr. Elizabeth McRae, Dr. Mary Ella Engel, and Dr. Richard Starnes. Due to their advice and encouragement, I felt capable of accomplishing this project. I would also like to thank the entire History Department at Western Carolina University. The knowledge and guidance provided by the faculty has helped me be a better student and historian.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page Introduction ............................................................................................................. 7

Historiography .......................................................................................... 15 Method ........................................................................................................ 22 Outline ......................................................................................................... 24 Chapter One: Copiers of Colonists........................................................................... 28 John Smibert ................................................................................................ 32 Benjamin West ............................................................................................ 42 John Singleton Copley ................................................................................ 48 Charles Willson Peale ................................................................................. 52 Chapter Two: Who`s Who: Art in a Age of Changing Nation ............................... 63 Benjamin West ............................................................................................ 66 John Singleton Copley ................................................................................ 74 Joseph Wright ............................................................................................. 82 Charles Willson Peale ................................................................................. 87 Chapter Three: Breaking with the Brits? ................................................................ 96 Rembrandt Peale ......................................................................................... 99 John Trumbull and Samuel F.B. Morse ................................................... 105 Chapter Four: America Finds its Style: Primitive. ................................................ 139 Ammi Phillips ........................................................................................... 145 William Matthew Prior ............................................................................. 149 Deborah Goldsmith, Ruth Bascom, Mary Ann Willson ........................... 155 Joseph Whiting Stock ............................................................................... 162 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 176 Bibliography ......................................................................................................... 188 Appendix A: Figures ............................................................................................. 202

ABSTRACT

American Portraiture/American Identity: Transformations in American Art 1730-1860 Matthew Robert Blaylock, MA History Western Carolina University (August 2011) Director: Dr. Jessica Swigger

Between the Colonial period and the Early Republic, American portraiture changed in style and in subject matter. By the early parts of the nineteenth century, a unique, and quintessentially American style emerged, a phenomenon which scholars have not yet adequately explained. The development of a unique American identity and the emergence of a middle class in Nineteenth Century society explains why artists broke from British traditions. Middle class Americans demanded to be part of a material culture previously restricted to the upper-classes by reinterpreting art to fit into their expanding but still limited budgets. This project argues that as identities of art patrons changed, artists amended their styles in the hopes of realizing the greatest profits as customer demand was the greatest force in setting American artistic styles.

American primitive or folk portraits can be viewed as the sister of Colonial and Revolutionary portraiture. Colonial and Revolutionary art adhered to British cultural norms because colonials desired to purchase portraiture that mirrored the styles that their contemporaries in England were purchasing; portraiture was a signifier of one`s high social position. These consumption patterns defined American elite art well into the beginning of the New Republic. A British cultural identity was so ingrained in the upper

class that despite different political views, loyalists and patriots both expected fine art to maintain British qualities even after the Revolution.

What is unique to Colonial but more directly Revolutionary and Early Republic portraiture is that despite being executed with classical British styles, tensions of divided loyalties were indirectly evident. These tensions hinted at the changes that would shape American art as the bonds that connected Americans to British culture were challenged during the first generation of the New Republic in both academic and primitive painting. This period ushered in a new artistic genre with the emergence of a middle class, folk portraiture as an American identity influenced patrons, clients, and artists alike. A study of the professional lives of Benjamin West (1738-1820), John Singleton Copley (17381815), Charles Wilson Peale (1741-1827), Joseph Wright (1756-1793), Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860), and Samuel F.B Morse (1791-1872) explicates the complexity of Colonial, Revolutionary and Early Republic portraiture. Each artist, despite personal feelings, worked during a period when classical British styles reflected the inheritance of British culture, comprising a tradition in art much more British than American.

In the Nineteenth Century, American portrait artists began to sever cultural ties with England. These artists worked during a period when ideas of nationalism and American identity were hotly contested. A clearly American spirit manifested itself in portraiture with inventive styles and an appeal to all classes to purchase portraits. Artists amended their styles to be more financially affordable to more levels of classes by painting faster with less detail. Obviously, something in the American white, middleclass changed in the Nineteenth Century resulting in the first independent American artistic genre. This project examines and explains this process. An expanding middle

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