19th Century American Art: A Timeline Quiz

The American Folk artist Edward Hicks (1780-1849) painted "The Peaceable Kingdom" in 1826; it's to be found in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Raised in Pennsylvania by a Quaker stepmother, Hicks was apprenticed to a coach builder where he learnt the craft of coach painting. He became a Quaker himself, and by his early 30s he was an itinerant preacher supporting his lifestyle by domestic painting of furniture, tavern signs and so on. However this brought him into conflict with Quakers who were displeased with ornamentation, so he gave it up to become a farmer. But the arrival of a fifth child brought the family close to bankruptcy so he resolved to go back to decorative painting, and in about 1820 he produced the first in a series of paintings themed around the biblical concept of the "Peaceable Kingdom".

He took his inspiration from Isaiah 11:6-7: "6. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. 7. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox". Hicks depicted these animals living together in peace and harmony. Normally they're grouped on the right of the picture, with some other event taking place in a more distant view to the the left. The figures are modelled in a naive, organic style.

He went on to paint about 62 pictures with this theme. One of the most well-known is "The Peaceable Kingdom" painted in 1826 and now to be found in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. When I visited this museum about 40 years ago I'd never heard of Hicks or his work, and I was knocked out by what I saw. I love looking at these works - they're calming and contemplative. Hicks painted other subjects such as pictures of biblical and historical events and farms, but the "Peaceable Kingdom" pictures are lovely.

John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin, 1785-1851) made hand-painted engravings of 435 species of American birds for his "The Birds of America" collection, published in (normally) four volumes from 1827 onwards.

Audubon was born in Haiti and raised in France, but emigrated to the US in 1803 in order to avoid being drafted into Napoleon's armies. He was an amateur naturalist and ornithologist from an early age, and raised money from various sources to help fund this as well as collecting specimens on his trips to the mid-West. Eventually he decided to raise subscriptions for a book of his engravings of American birds; this went well and he was able to start producing copies.

His illustrations are wonderful, colourful and well-composed but at the same time absolutely scientifically accurate, and he became known world-wide for his work.

Only 120 complete sets of "The Birds of America" are known to exist. In 2019 a complete copy of the first edition sold for $6.6 million, and in 2010, "The Economist" magazine estimated that (having adjusted for inflation) five of the ten highest prices ever paid for printed books were paid for copies.

The Romantic historical painter Emanuel Leutze (1816-1868) painted "Washington Crossing the Delaware" in 1851; it's to be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, with a copy in the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, Minnesota.

Born in Germany, Leutze and his family emigrated to the US when he was nine. He soon proved to be a talented amateur artist and studied art in the US and Germany. He became interested in historical paintings, and in 1850 painted the first version of "Washington Crossing the Delaware", which was acquired by the Kunsthalle in Bremen. He was then asked to paint a larger replica for exhibition in the US which eventually ended up in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Seizing the opportunity he returned to the US in 1859, where he became a famed portraitist as well as continuing his studies of historical subjects, for example "Westward Ho!" in the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. Sadly, he died of heatstroke in Washington at the age of 51.

"Washington Crossing the Delaware" has become an iconic image from US history. However the first version, completed in 1850, was destroyed during an Allied bombing raid on Bremen in September 1942 in WWII.

Hudson River School landscape painter Frederic Church (1826-1900) painted "Niagara Falls" in 1857; it's to be found in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Church was a key member of the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, known for his large landscapes depicting mountains, storms and sunsets. Coming from a wealthy background, he was able to study art from an early age, soon revealing an immense talent. Thomas Cole, who founded the Hudson River School, said that Church had "the finest eye for drawing in the world".

Church travelled extensively in North and South America. His large, detailed paintings of the landscapes he saw created a sensation, and by 1860 he was the most famous painter in the US. In 1859 he sold one of his works, "The Heart of the Andes", for $10,000, which at that time was the highest price ever paid for a work by a living American artist. This fame was transitory, however, as his work came to be seen as old-fashioned and obsessed with detail. Nevertheless, he died with millions in the bank!

The Tonalist painter James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) painted "Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1" (also known as "Whistler's Mother" or "Portrait of Artist's Mother") in 1871; it's to be found in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Born in Massachusetts, at the age of eight Whistler accompanied his family to Russia where his father had been asked to design a railway system. At the age of 11 he attended the Imperial Academy of Arts, and soon he decided on a career in art. Sadly his father died of cholera, and the family moved back to Connecticut where they lived in straightened circumstances. Whistler then enrolled at West Point but was sent down because of his poor behaviour and attainment. He then scratched around the borders of the art world for a few years, but eventually, in 1855, he moved to Paris.

Here he lived a bohemian lifestyle while picking up ideas about painting and the use of colour, especially black. Moving to London in 1859, he started to prosper, exhibiting and selling works. His use of a monochrome palette led eventually to the famous "Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1", an arrangement of geometrical shapes and tonality. The public's initial response to this work was highly critical, and the Royal Academy initially refused to hang it; it was then purchased by the French government.

He was a noted wit, especially in verbal duels with Oscar Wilde. On one occasion Wilde was a guest of Whistler's and heard his host make a brilliant quip. Wilde said "I wish I'd said that", to which Whistler replied "You will, Oscar, you will!". However the friendship soured when Wilde acknowledged his homosexuality in 1895.

The Western landscape artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) painted "The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone" in 1872; it's to be found in National Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

A member of the Hudson River School, Moran specialised in paintings of the Rocky Mountains. He was influenced in particular by J. M. W. Turner, producing watercolours in that style while working as a wood-engraver. He became well-known for his artworks, and in 1871 was invited to join an expedition to Yellowstone. His stunning landscape paintings of the area, along with the photographs produced by William Henry Jackson, inspired Congress to establish the area as the first US national park in 1872. Moran's reputation was sky-high, and when he painted "The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone" it was bought by the government for $10,000.

The American Realist painter Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) painted "The Swimming Hole" in 1884; it's to be found in the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas.

Thomas Eakins lived most of his life in Philadelphia, where he painted many portraits of prominent Philadelphians; he also painted pictures of people singly and in groups in the open air. He spent a number of years in Paris, but wasn't particularly impressed by the Impressionist movement; he was more interested in realist painting of people, especially nude.

From 1876 he taught art at the Pennsylvania Academy, running life classes - a sensitive topic in those less-advanced days. Eventually, in 1886, he was forced to resign after he'd taken off a male model's loincloth in a class where female students were present. He then took up photography, again specialising in nude figures.

His portrait painting was excellent; one of his finest works is of a surgeon performing an operation, "The Gross Clinic" (1875, now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art). Possibly his finest work, however, is "The Swimming Hole", both because of the fine portrayals of the male nudes and also for its composition.

Eakins was not recognised as an important artist until later on in his career. He taught hundreds of artists, many of whom became important themselves. His progressive attitudes towards nudes and life classes have also been brought to notice.

The Western American artist Frederic Remington (1861-1909) painted "A Dash for the Timber" in 1889; it's to be found in the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas.

Frederic Remington was from New York and went to Yale to study art, although football soon became of greater interest. Sadly his father's poor health meant that he had to come home, after which he took himself off to Montana to take up ranching. This failed, as did a hardware business, so he took up sketching and painting to pay the bills, with the result that his wife left him. However, he carried on painting, soon selling in good numbers, and his illustrations and sketches for magazines such as "Collier's" and "Harper's Weekly" helped bring what were to be the final days of "the old West" to public attention.

He made many visits to the West; for example, he was commissioned by the US Army to join an expedition against Geronimo, and produced many pictures of his trip (though failing to catch Geronimo). He also invented "cowboy" sculpture" with his inaugural piece, "The Bronco Buster" (1895). All-in-all, he was the most successful painter of the West at the end of the 19th century.

The Impressionist artist Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) painted "The Child's Bath" in 1893; it's to be found in the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois.

Mary Cassat was born into a wealthy Pennsylvania family, but spent five years of her youth touring Europe, learning German and French and having her first drawing and music lessons. Then, at the age of 15, she started studying art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where she was a contemporary of Thomas Eakins. In 1866 she moved to Paris to study independently - at that time women were not allowed to attend the École des Beaux-Arts.

Cassatt struggled for recognition for many years while Manet and the Impressionists were bringing about fundamental change in the art world. She went home for a year but returned to Paris in 1871 but still struggled until Degas invited her to exhibit at the 1878 Impressionist show and also started to help her in draftsmanship. She took part in the 1879, 1880 and 1881 exhibitions, selling well.

However Cassatt is perhaps best known for her series of works depicting mothers and children, of which "The Child's Bath" is one of the best examples. Sadly, her work received no recognition in the US.

The Realist marine artist Winslow Homer (1836-1910) painted "The Gulf Stream" in 1899; it's to be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Homer was one of the great 19th century American artists. After working for years as an illustrator for magazines he took up painting in his late 20s; within a year of starting classes at the National Academy of Design he was producing excellent oil paintings. He spent time at the front line during the Civil War producing works that sold well and attracted notice.

In the mid-1870s he took up watercolour painting, and his work became noticeably more restrained and mature after he spent a year in the village of Cullercoats on the Northumberland coast in north-east England. He was by this time producing a large number of works concentrating on marine scenes and seascapes, including "The Gulf Stream" - a scene of misery as a man struggles in a dismasted small boat with a storm coming on and the sharks circling his boat.

Homer was a very prolific artist and his work covers all sorts of areas. However I find his seascapes the most satisfying.