International Art Treasures Web Magazine August 2006

American ABC

A Tough Story by John George Brown from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: A Tough Story, 1886
Artist: John George Brown (American 1831-1913)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 25 x 30 1/4 in.,
Permanent Collection: North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh.
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Images of children have long been a popular subject in art and their historical rendition captures changing times and cultures.

Childhood in 19th Century American
Smithsonian American Art Museum
July 1 - September 17, 2006

Elizabeth with a Dog by Thomas Eakins from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: Elizabeth with a Dog, 1871
Artist: Thomas Eakins (American 1844-1916)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 13 3/4 x 17 in.,
Permanent Collection: San Diego Museum of Art,
Museum purchase and a gift from Mr. And Mrs. Edwin S. Larsen.
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

American ABC demonstrates how portrayals of the nation’s youngest citizens took a symbolic role in the United States’ development by looking into everyday life of the period; the world of families, children’s pastimes and the routines of the schoolhouse. It delves into the dichotomy of images of the American child and the democratic ideals of the 19th Century United States. It centers on six traditional subjects: the country boy, the American girl, the African American child, the urban waif, the Native American child and the child in school. Included will be a variety of illustrated children’s books, such as Mark Twain’s “Huck Finn,” Noah Webster’s “Elementary Spelling Book,” McGuffey’s readers and colorful ABC primers.

Snap the Whip by Winslow Homer from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: Snap the Whip, 1872
Artist: Winslow Homer (American 1836-1910)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 12 x 20 in.,
Permanent Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
Gift of Christian A. Zabriskie, 1950.
Photograph © 1999 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Boyhood of Lincoln by Eastman
Johnson from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: Boyhood of Lincoln, 1868
Artist: Eastman Johnson (American 1824-1906)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 46 x 37 in.,
Permanent Collection: The University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor,
Bequest of Henry C. Lewis.
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

“This exhibition includes many delightful artworks about children by America’s most revered masters,” said Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the museum.

Adding, “It’s fascinating to learn how these works reveal concerns that were at the center of national life.”

American ABC explores artistic images of children and their relationship to the American quest for national identity.

Attention, Company! by William Hamett from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: Attention, Company!, 1878
Artist: William Harnett (American 1848-1892)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 36 x 28 in.
Permanent Collection: Amon Carter Museum, Fort
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Featured artists include John George Brown, George Catlin, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Eastman Johnson.

John George Brown

The Berry Boy by John George Brown from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: The Berry Boy, c. 1875
Artist: John George Brown (American 1831-1913)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 23 x 15 in.,
Permanent Collection: George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Mass.
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Durham, England native John George Brown epitomized American Realism. He moved to New York City in his early twenties and was a charter member of the Water-Color Society, eventually serving as its president. Appropriately for American ABC Brown's favored subject was the life of children.

George Catlin

Catlin is one of the finest painters of American Indians. Inspired after viewing a delegation of American Indians in Philadelphia the artist dedicated his artistic talents to depicting the customs of Native Americans. George Catlin's first career was law; he became a self taught artist.

Osceola Nica-a-no-chee by George Catlin from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: Osceola Nick-a-no-chee, A Boy, 1840
Artist: George Catlin (American 1796-1872)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 52 x 40 in.,
Permanent Collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Seymour Guy

Unconscious of Danger by Seymour Guy from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: Unconscious of Danger, 1865
Artist: Seymour Guy (American 1824-1875)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 20 x 16 in.,
Private collection.
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Born and raised in Victorian England Seymour Guy favored images of children in interior settings. Emigrating to New York City in 1854 he was a studio neighbor of John George Brown.

Winslow Homer

Army Boots by Winslow Homer from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: Army Boots, 1865
Artist: Winslow Homer (American 1836-1910)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 14 x 18 in.
Permanent Collection: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.,
Gift of the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Foundation, 1966.
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Along with fellow American artists John George Brown and Seymour Guy, Winslow Homer had an artist's studio at 10th Street Studio Building in New York City. Homer was a naturalist painter who created breathtaking views of the American landscape. As an illustrator for Harper's Weekly Magazine he was sent to the front lines of the American Civil War. He developed a substantial following and one of his painting that is featured in this exhibit, Snap the Whip, was displayed at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition held in 1876.

Country School by Winslow Homer from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: Country School, 1873
Artist: Winslow Homer (American 1836-1910)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 12 1/4 x 18 11/16 in.,
Permanent Collection: Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Francis William Edmonds

The New Scholar by Francis Edmonds from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: The New Scholar, 1845
Artist: Francis William Edmonds (American 1806-1863)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 27 x 34 in.,
Permanent Collection: The Manoogian Collection, Detroit, Michigan.
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Like George Catlin, Francis William Edmonds first career was not art. He was a banker who used his financial acumen to teach artists what they needed to know about the financial world and utilized his artistic endeavors to persuade his business friends to become patrons of the arts.

Eastman Johnson

Lovell, Maine native Eastman Johnson originally focused his talents on creating portraits. After moving with his family to Washington DC in 1845 he began to render images of famous Americans including John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthrone and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Ragamuffin by Eastman Johnson from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: Ragamuffin, c. 1869.
Artist: Eastman Johnson (American 1824-1906)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 11 1/2 x 6 3/8 in.,
Private collection
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

The Truant by Randolph Rogers from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: The Truant, 1853
Artist: Randolph Rogers (American 1825-1892)
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: 40 1/2 x 15 x 25 1/2 in.,
Permanent Collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1977.116
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

“The exhibition is about 19th-century Americans who were trying to live up to the Founding Fathers’ vision for the United States,” said Claire Perry, exhibition curator and curator of American art at the Cantor Arts Center.

Newspaper Boy by Edward Mitchell Bannister from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: Newspaper Boy, 1869
Artist: Edward Mitchell Bannister (American 1828-1901)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 30 1/8 x 25 1/8 in.,
Permanent Collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Gift of Jack Hafif and Frederick Weingeroff, 1983.95.85
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Perry continued, “As these citizens confronted the economic, political and racial problems of their time—the same issues we struggle with today—they created idealized images of American children that pointed the way to a bright future for the nation.”

Interior with Portraits by Thomas Le Clear from American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century American at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Title: Interior with Portraits, ca. 1865
Artist: Thomas Le Clear (American 1818-1862)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 25 7/8 x 40 1/2 in.
Permanent Collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum
Purchase made possible by the Pauline Edwards Bequest, 1993.6
Image Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Some of the works from the Smithsonian American Art Museum's permanent collection, such as paintings by George Catlin, works by Thomas Crawford, Harriet Hosmer and William Henry Rinehart, among others, will be included at their venue only and will not continue when American ABC travels to the Portland Museum of Art.

American ABC Childhood in 19th Century America
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC:
July 1 - September 17, 2006
Portland Museum of Art, Maine:
November 1, 2006 – January 7, 2007

Smithsonian American Art Museum

americanart.si.edu