Thomas Cole
ArtScapades presents the following lectures:
Early American Portraiture: From Folk Art to Fine Art – ArtScapades will discuss what was happening at the time in European portraiture, information on the rise of the middle class in America, and the importance of art to document history before the invention of photography. ArtScapades details the lives and works of well-known fine artists John Singleton Copley and Gilbert Stuart. Lesser known but also very important to the development of portraiture in America, ArtScapades will focus on two Early American Folk Artists, Ammi Phillips and Erastus Salisbury Field.
The Art of American Independence: Beyond the Declaration – ArtScapades will look at paintings that depict America as it fought to break from British rule and create an independent country. ArtScapades will look at how artists depicted the events that led up to the Revolution, the battles that raged during the conflict, the creation and signing of a Declaration of Independence, and images that reflect the early days of a new country. This lecture will look at works by John Trumbull, Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart, John Singleton Copley, Emanuel Leutze, Grant Wood, Jacob Lawrence, and others.
American Conflicts: From the Revolution to the Civil War – ArtScapades discusses the importance of art during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. The focus will be on the major artists who commemorated the conflicts, working either on the battlefield or back in their studios. This lecture discusses the lives and works of Charles Willson Peale, John Trumbull, Sanford Robinson Gifford, Winslow Homer, and Conrad Wise Chapman.
The Civil War in Art: From Conflict to Aftermath – ArtScapades will look at works that show the impact of the Civil War and its aftermath, art that conveys the intense emotions of the period. Artists include Winslow Homer, Eastman Johnson, Frederic Church, Sanford Gifford, and others. These artists tackled issues that addressed the entire scope of the war, including emancipation and reconciliation.
American Vistas: From the Hudson River to Uncharted Territories – ArtScapades looks at the Hudson River School, the first native art movement in the United States. The art of the Hudson River School was strongly nationalistic both in its proud celebration of the natural beauty of the American landscape, and in the desire of its artists to become independent of European schools of painting. The lives and works of the three leading Hudson River School artists, Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, and Frederic Edwin Church will be discussed.
American Images: From Camera to Canvas – As the camera became more available to the public during the mid 1800s, photography began to affect the art world. With the Hudson River School as a starting point, we will look at how artists incorporated the use of photography in their artistic process, enabling them to create ever more dramatic paintings of a young growing America and its people, including the country’s expansion westward. ArtScapades presents three quintessential artists, Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Eakins.
Artists Abroad: From American to Expatriate – ArtScapades looks at American artists who, despite their expatriate status, are among America’s greatest talents. Included in this lecture are Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, and James McNeill Whistler.
American Impressionism: From France to Our Shores – ArtScapades explains how the movement arrived in America including the influence of art dealers, the education of American artists in Europe, and the formation of art colonies. This lecture looks at the American Impressionists William Merritt Chase, John H. Twachtman, J. Alden Weir and Childe Hassam.
Connecticut Art Colonies: The Artists of Cos Cob, Lyme, and Silvermine – ArtScapades will look at the most well-known art colonies in Connecticut, putting them in context with what was going on in the art world at the time. Artists included in this discussion are John Twachtman, J. Alden Weir, Theodore Robinson, Henry Ward Ranger, Childe Hassam, Solon Borglum, and Daniel Brinley, among others.
W.P.A. Art: From the New Deal to Community Art Projects – ArtScapades looks at three American Impressionists, John Henry Twachtman, Julian Alden Weir, and Childe Hassam who were working in the Connecticut area leading up to the period of FDR’s presidency, and then looks at five W.P.A. artists whose works were installed in the local area, Arthur G. Hull, Robert Pallesen, John Steuart Curry, George Avison, and Alexander J. Rummler.
The Four Freedoms: From Roosevelt to Rockwell – ArtScapades will look at the history of Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech, in which he described his vision for a post-war world based on freedom of speech and expression, freedom of every person to worship in his or her own way, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. ArtScapades will then talk about the life and work of Norman Rockwell, who in 1943, illustrated the Four Freedoms for The Saturday Evening Post. Many Americans saw Rockwell’s works and viewed them as a rallying cry.