Early American Art
From WikiDemocracy
Visual Art of the United States
Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by U.S. artists. Before colonization, there were many flourishing traditions of Native American art, and where the Spanish colonized Spanish Colonial architecture and the accompanying styles in other media were quickly in place. Early colonial art on the East Coast initially relied on artists from Europe, with John White (1540-c. 1593) the earliest example. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, artists primarily painted portraits, and some landscapes in a style based mainly on English painting. Furniture-makers imitating English styles and similar craftsmen were also established in the major cities, but in the English colonies, locally made pottery remained resolutely utilitarian until the 19th century, with fancy products imported.
Early American Art
The museum’s collection begins with works from the colonies of New Spain and New England. Some of the oldest works in the collection are from seventheenth-century Puerto Rico—Santa Bárbara (Saint Barbara), a painting from about 1680–90, and Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows), a painted wood sculpture from about 1675–1725. The collection features artworks that trace the transformation of the thirteen colonies into a nation, including portraits by John Singleton Copley, Charles Willson Peale, and Gilbert Stuart; landscapes by Thomas Cole; and sculptures by Horatio Greenough.
Art in American Colonies and the United States, c. 1700–1865
It was only in 1605 the the British founded Roanoke Colony in what would later be named North Carolina. Although Roanoke Colony failed while still in its infancy, two years later the British colony of Jamestown—founded in 1607—managed, despite starvation and disease, to survive. It is estimated that the combined European population of North America in 1610 was approximately 350. In contrast to this, a recent study has suggested that the population of Indigenous peoples in what is now the United States and Canada approached 7 million—a number that was greatly reduced in the decades following the arrival of Europeans due to genocide and the introduction of pathogens from Europe, Asia, and Africa to which the Indigenous peoples of the Americas had no protection.
Art of the Americas
The Art of the Americas department studies, presents, and cares for the paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts made throughout North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean by artists from many cultures and nations. Spanning 3,000 years, from the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica to the modern art capitals of Mexico City and New York, these objects embody the essential human desire to create meaning and beauty through art and craft, a drive shared by artists free and enslaved, trained and self-taught, immigrant and indigenous. Shaped by global contexts of migration, war, commerce, politics, and cultural exchange, the works on view hold many stories and reflect a wide range of ideas about the Americas and Americanness—as a place, an identity, and an aspiration.
In Focus: Early American Art
by Farnsworth Art Museum 19/7/25
In Focus: Early American Art invites visitors to delve into the Museum’s exceptional holdings of American art from the 18th to early 20th century. Featuring both iconic pieces and recent acquisitions, the show offers a fresh perspective on American art history. Through portraits, landscapes, and Wabanaki baskets, the exhibition broadens our understanding of the country’s cultural heritage, artistic legacy and Maine’s role within it.
American Folk Art Museum is a center of scholarship
Ancient American Art in The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing
A rich history of creative expression—parallel to, but independent of, the rest of the world—unfolded in North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean thousands of years prior to European colonization. Over the course of several millennia, artists transformed select materials into monumental stone sculptures, finely crafted gold ornaments, and other works in wood, ceramic, shell, textile, and featherwork. The Met’s collection of ancient American art sheds light on how these works were commissioned, created, and animated by powerful men and women across the continents.
Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North
Through 125 remarkable works including paintings, needlework, and photographs, this exhibition invites visitors to focus on figures who appear in—or are omitted from—early American images and will challenge conventional narratives that have minimized early Black histories in the North, revealing the complexities and contradictions of the region’s history between the late 1600s and early 1800s.
New Galleries Will Present a Fresh Take on Art of the Americas with a Focus on Philadelphia
by PHILADEPHIA ART MUSEUM 25/2/21
On May 7, 2021, when the Philadelphia Museum of Art unveils its new Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Galleries dedicated to American art from 1650 to1850, visitors will enter a succession of generously proportioned spaces to experience the museum’s spectacular collection of early American art in an entirely new light. In galleries that will be accessed from a spacious corridor that provides superb views to the city skyline through windows with Tiffany iron grilles—original to the building but blocked for many decades—visitors will be presented with the first major reinstallation of early American art since the nation’s Bicentennial celebrations in 1976.
Early American Painting
Early American art includes works made by settlers in what we now know as the United States. Before the American Revolution, artists documented life in the colonies of New Spain and New England. And in the early decades of the United States, many artists represented the new nation through portraits of its early leaders.
List of American artists before 1900
This is a list by date of birth of historically recognized American fine artists known for the creation of artworks that are primarily visual in nature, including traditional media such as painting, sculpture, photography, and printmaking.
Ten Artworks to Understand Early United States History
From the Native peoples lobbying to keep their homelands to immigrants facing challenges in their new home, artists used these works to shape American identity, advocate for change, and reckon with our nation’s stories.
American Paintings and Sculpture
by YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY
Yale University has been collecting American art for more than 250 years. In 1832 it erected the first art museum on a college campus in North America, with the intention of housing John Trumbull’s paintings of the American Revolution—including his iconic painting The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776—and close to 100 of his portraits of Revolutionary and Early Republic worthies.
Foundations of American Art
Spanning from the 18th century to the mid-20th century, the newly installed Foundations of American Art gallery—the first fully transformed gallery in our expansion—offers an engaging and immersive journey through the early and modern chapters of our shared cultural story.
At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism
by Whitney Museum of American Art 7/5/22
At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism showcases art produced between 1900 and 1930 by well-known American modernists and their now largely forgotten, but equally groundbreaking peers. Drawn primarily from the Whitney’s permanent collection, it provides new perspectives on the myriad ways American artists used nonrepresentational styles developed in Europe to express their subjective responses to the realities of the modern age.
The first newly-transformed gallery highlights artists and stories from the 18th to early 20th centuries
BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art reaches a major milestone in its expansion on Saturday, July 19, when the museum’s first newly-transformed gallery opens to the public. The Foundations of American Art Gallery is located in the former Contemporary space and features works many visitors may remember from the Early American collection, like Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 and Richard Caton Woodville’s War News from Mexico, as well as several new works that will surprise, delight, and inspire guests. The installation highlights artists and stories from the 18th to early 20th centuries, connecting the past with the present.
American Made: Selections from The Huntington’s Early American Art Collections Exhibitions
The American art collections are growing, and the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art are expanding to make room for new acquisitions and to improve the visitor experience. While several rooms are closed this fall during renovations, curators have taken the opportunity to spotlight some of the earliest works in the collection in a temporary installation in the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery. “American Made: Selections from The Huntington’s Early American Art Collections” opens Sept. 5 and continues through Jan. 5, 2016, focusing on masterworks from the colonial period through the Civil War.
The Art of Early American Embroidery
From the 1600s until about 1830, the education of American girls emphasized reading, writing, and embroidery. For girls whose families could afford to send them to school, a finely worked embroidery which was worthy of being framed for display in her home served as a kind of diploma. It evidenced both her mastery of an important practical skill and the diligence and self-discipline that society expected of its more privileged members.
EARLY AMERICAN PAINTER
My name is Suzanne Carroll Korn. I am an early American painter, folk artist, and owner of Grace for Daisy Folkart! I'm so happy you found my website. My inspiration leaps from the folk art landscapes, designs, and motifs found on New England’s 19th century historic paint-decorated walls. Over 20 years ago, I began researching, studying, and writing about these large and amazing remnants of American folk art that were painted between the years 1800 – 1860.
American Decorative Arts
The American collection of decorative arts contain examples of furniture, sculpture, textiles, glass, ceramic, and metalwork from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The collection includes tools, portraits, landscapes, quilts, chairs, and rare examples of exuberantly painted furniture that come primarily from rural New England.
