The Nation in a NutshellTowle, George M. (George Makepeace)
History
The Nation in a Nutshell
Towle, George M. (George Makepeace)
United States -- History -- Outlines, syllabi, etc.
Following Copley and West came, close together, three painters whose
works were of a high order, some of them being familiar to every one in
engraved copies. These were Charles Wilson Peale, Gilbert Stuart, and
John Trumbull. Peale was a saddler's apprentice, Stuart the son of
a snuffmaker; Trumbull, on the other hand, was the son of one of the
foremost statesmen of the Revolution. To all three we owe portraits of
Washington from life. Peale painted him in his prime, just after the
battle of Monmouth; Trumbull painted him as he was a few years later,
at the surrender of Cornwallis; and Stuart painted him when the added
dignity of age had crept upon him, and he was President at Philadelphia.
Both Peale and Trumbull fought in the Revolution. Trumbull is now
best known as the painter of the historical pictures of the war for
independence which hang in the Capitol at Washington; of which the most
familiar is the "Battle of Bunker's Hill."
[Sidenote: Washington Allston.]
It could no longer be said, after these great painters had lived and
left enduring results of their labors, that America was devoid of a
genius for, or an appreciation of, art. The appearance of Washington
Allston, who as a colorist won the name of the "American Titian," and
whose noble conceptions of Biblical subjects, executed with wonderful
power, have given him permanent rank among the best artists of his time;
and of Henry Inman, whose versatile genius readily took up portrait,
historical, or landscape painting at will, served to carry American art
yet another grade higher. Rembrandt Peale sustained the tradition of his
father's ability by his own works; Sully came from England to win fame
here as a portrait-painter; Vanderlyn and many others rapidly rose
to establish art as a profession and adornment in this country. It is
worthy of note that two of the greatest of American inventors, Robert
Fulton and S.F.B. Morse, began life as artists; but found it more
profitable, in fame and fortune, to run steamboats and establish
telegraphs.
[Sidenote: Artists as Inventors.]
[Sidenote: Sculptors.]
The sister arts have nourished in this country in a degree scarcely less
marked than painting. In sculpture, a later but prolific growth with
us, the names of Hiram Powers, Horatio Greenough, Crawford, Ball, Story,
Ward, Rogers, Hart, and Harriet Hosmer, sufficiently attest the progress
made and the reputation established in this respect. In drawing,
caricature, water-colors, and other minor branches of art, our progress
has been scarcely less notable; we may fairly claim to have our Gillrays
and Cruikshanks as well as our English cousins.
[Sidenote: Art a Modern Necessity.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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