Frederic Church, Winslow Homer & Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape
https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18173777/
- graphite on paper off-white wove paper
- Gift of Charles Savage Homer, Jr.
“Frederic Church, Winslow Homer and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape” explores the promotion of tourism in 19th century America through the museum’s extraordinary collections of oil paintings, drawings and watercolors by these artists. The exhibition demonstrates the role of 19th century landscape works in the broader context of design, particularly the decorative arts and graphic design, and offer a new perspective on the study of these major American artists. Oil studies, drawings and watercolors by Church (1826-1900), Homer (1836-1910) and Moran (1837-1926) capture romanticized views of Niagara Falls, the Hudson River valley, the Adirondacks, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite, among others. The artists’ works, which were disseminated through exhibitions, reproductions, popular journals, illustrated publications and guidebooks, piqued national interest in these regions and contributed to a burgeoning tourist industry. The exhibition explores such themes as: the pastoral ideal, particularly Homer’s glorification of rural life through depictions of bucolic fantasy; the role of Moran and other artists in the promotion of Western tourism through the creation of iconic images of natural wonders such as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone; and the contradictory nature of scenic tourism, whereby overdevelopment of rural mountain and seashore retreats challenged the pristine landscape that Americans purportedly prized.
While the primary focus of the museum was pre-19th-century European decorative arts, an exception was made for sketches from American artists such as Winslow Homer, Thomas Moran, Robert Blum, and Frederic Edwin Church. The Women’s Art School requested that the museum acquire figural drawings. “As quickly as they can be acquired,” Eleanor wrote, “leaves from the note and sketch books of artists of the last half of the 19th century, and the present day, are being placed [on the walls of the corridors and staircases].”
Dappled sunlight and lush foliage distinguish this iconic painting by Winslow Homer. Encapsulating new, bourgeois pursuits of relaxation, this well-dressed young woman reclines in a hammock with book in hand. As indicated by the title, Homer successfully blends impressionistic attention to light and shadow with keenly observed details of dress and manner to create a scene with both the ethos of a summer's day and a journalistic record of the activities of the new leisure class.
