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History Paintings are dramatized depictions of important events. They can be used as a visual aid when teaching historic events; as subjects for analysis in visual literacy lessons; or as documents of historic propaganda.

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Resources:

Overview - History Painting - Wikipedia

Detailed Breakdown - Definitions and Examples - via the Art Encyclopedia

Slideshow - British and America History Paintings of the 1700s - via National Gallery of Art

Summary:
History paintings were embraced by American artists, who wanted to make names for themselves, and who wanted to establish the newly formed nation as having as much history as the European countries they'd broken from.

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Watson and the Shark - John Singleton Copley, 1778

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Watson and the Shark - John Singleton Copley, 1778

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Information:
National Gallery
Artstor

Summary:
Watson and the Shark depicts the rescue of Brook Watson, a cabin boy who fell overboard in Havana Harbor. His crewmates were able to pull him to safety, but not before he lost his leg to a shark attack. Watson survived, became a successful businessman and politician, and commissioned Copley to document the shark attack as a testament to his resilience.

Essential questions:
How did Copley compose this painting to direct viewer focus and create a sense of drama? - answered here

How does this work reflect Copley's views on racial equality? - answered here - compare to Edward Savage's The Washington Family, 1889

Why does the shark look like that? - discussed here

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Examining American portraiture can help learners match faces to names in order to improve retention. In-depth analysis can also provide clues to what virtues, commodities, and wealth indicators were valued by the people commissioning them.

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Resources:
Overview - Portrait - via Tate Galleries

Cultural Context - Art and Identity - via Metropolitan Museum of Art

Image Gallery - Faces of America - via National Gallery of Art

Summary:
Portraiture was a vital career maker for professional artists, as it financed their larger projects. It also allowed the subject to choose exactly how they wanted to be remembered, emphasizing their virtues, property, and features.

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Portrait of an African American Man, 1820

Information:
Biography - via National Gallery
Catalog of Works - via WikiArt

Summary:
Joshua Johnson was a self-taught portrait painter, and the first Black professional artist in the United States. He the half-white child of an unknown enslaved woman. When he was 19, his birth father bought him, and freed him several years later. Very little is known about his life, but he had begun learning to paint by the time he was freed, and he went on to become a prolific portraitist. His work is recognized as being a bridge between folk and fine art.

Essential questions:
Why is so little known about Johnson's life? - answered here

How do Johnson's portraits compare to other, professionally trained artists of his time? - discussed here

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By studying how American artists - especially those in the Hudson River School - celebrated their country in an internationally recognized way, learners can gain insights into the United States role as a world power. We can also examine these works for early environmentalist attitudes.

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Resources:
Overview - The Hudson River School - via the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cultural Context - A Brief History - via Artists Network

Image Gallery - Hudson River School Collection - via the Wadsworth Athenium

Summary:
American artists began to embrace landscape painting as a way of celebrating the uniquely 'unspoiled' environment of the pre-industrialized country. Their work celebrated the wildness of the natural world, and asserted that this untamable, untouched land was the closest thing to Eden that modern humans would ever experience.

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Information:
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Reframed

Summary:
Thomas Cole painted The Oxbow, or View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm with the intention of telling a story about the relationship between humans and nature. It became one of the most renowned landscape paintings of all time, depicting the tension between two forces, with a miniature self portrait hidden in the forest.

Essential Questions:
What does The Oxbow say about the relationship between humanity and nature? - answered here

Why might Cole have chosen to include a self portrait in this painting? - answered here

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This movement documented daily life in New York, especially in low income areas. Because it depicts a demographic that is frequently overlooked, Ashcan work offers a unique perspective on American city life in this time period.

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Resources:
Overview - Ashcan School of Painting - via Encyclopedia of Art History

Detailed History - The Ashcan School - via Metropolitan Museum of Art

Summary:
The Ashcan School took its name from a critical review that too much of their work featured young women standing by ashcans. They were not a concentrated group of people, but a movement dedicated to showcasing the daily life of low-income people. They challenged the conventions set by the impressionists, favored dark colors, and used bold, dynamic lines.

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Dust Storm Fifth Avenue, John Sloan, 1906

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Dust Storm Fifth Avenue, John Sloan, 1906

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Information:
About - via Metropolitan Museum of Art
History - via Redtree Times

Summary:
Sloan painted this scene after watching a crowd panic while a dust storm approached them. At the time this was painted, the Flatiron Building - shown looming above the scene - was the only tall building in this area, and its triangle shape created a wind tunnel. Sloan was fascinated by the sudden mayhem that the dust storm caused.

Essential Questions:
How might strong winds affect people who were passing through this neighborhood? - See video

How does Sloan's choice of color impact the scene? - Answered here

How is this different between work made by American Impressionists? - Compare to Childe Hassam's Fifth Avenue

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Though Impressionism was popular throughout the global west, American Impressionists give a window into the nostalgia and excitement that the Industrial Revolution was bringing. Also noteworthy is that these artists were frequently studying in Europe, creating a new, globalist artistic spirit.

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Resources:
Overview - Collecting Guide - via Christies

Detailed History - American Impressionism - via Metropolitan Museum of Art

Summary:
Following the American Civil War, many American artists began studying abroad in Paris, which gave to the rise of American Impressionism. Artists used light colors and strokes to create an atmospheric, energetic feeling.

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Young Mother Sewing, 1900

Information:
Biography - via MaryCassatt.org
Catalog of Works - via Metropolitan Museum of Art

Summary:
Mary Cassatt was born in Pennsylvania to a wealthy family. She studied painting in France, but because of sexist cultural norms, she spent much of her education there working independent of any education establishment. Throughout her career, she traveled between the United States and Europe often, but was not commercially successful until Edgar Degas introduced her to impressionism. She primarily painted family scenes and portraits, especially of her own family, in the impressionist style.

Essential Questions:
How might Cassatt's experiences with sexism have influenced her choice of subject matter? - Answered here

Why does it matter that Cassatt frequently worked in Paris? - Answered here

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Because Modernism sought to represent the hopes and values of industrial societies, works from this movement are uniquely aspirational. This gives learners a glimpse into the vast cultural changes that occurred in response to industrialization, and continued to do so as these changes progressed.

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Resources:
Timeline - Key Moments in Modernism - via the Tate Galleries

Context and Overview - American Modernism - via HiSoUR

Summary:
The American Modernist movement was not recognized by any set style - instead, it was diverse and experimental, and included many movements within it, including the Ashcan School. Modernist art is characterized by being more relevant to wider audiences than the movements that preceded it.

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Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue, 1931

Information:
Biography and Collected Works - via the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Summary:
Georgia O'Keeffe is widely renowned for her paintings of flowers, sky scrapers, and desert landscapes. She spent much of her early adulthood traveling the United States before moving to New York, where her career took off, but she was plagued by mental illness. After establishing herself as an artist, she moved to a desert ranch in New Mexico. Her work is characterized by bold colors, dynamic shapes, and a strong sense of motion.

Essential Questions:
How was O'Keeffe's work influenced by her time in New Mexico? - Answered here

How did O'Keeffe use symbolism in her work? - Answered here

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Discovery Activity Curation - Reflection