The Met Celebrates Early American Art

After years of renovation, the Met has reopened the third and last part of the American wing.
The Met Celebrates Early American Art
When John Singer Sargent sold his masterpiece “Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)” to the Metropolitan, he commented, “I suppose it is the best thing I have done.” “Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau),” 1883–1884, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), oil on canvas. (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
4/19/2012
Updated:
10/1/2015
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Washington Crossing the Delaware

NEW YORK—Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened the New American Wing Galleries for Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts after a decade of dedicated work. The renovation of an additional 26 galleries for American art completes the third and final phase of the American Wing renovation project.

The exhibited paintings and sculptures depict the life, struggles, and landscape of early American history. They also exalt the noble character of the human being.

Art, within the scope of its beauty, helps define the culture in which it is created. It is the visual representation of historic introspection, an unintentional discourse on the changes within human nature. Through the arts, we inadvertently hold mirrors up to ourselves.

In his painting “The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar,” the artist John Trumbull depicts the sudden attack the British troops made against the Spanish on Nov. 27, 1781, during the American War of Independence.

Spanish officer Don Jose de Barboza was left abandoned as the British troops arrived. Fearlessly, Don Jose de Barboza attempted to attack all the British troops alone. As a result, he was fatally wounded. The British, however, respected him because of his fearlessness.

The painting depicts a moment in which British Gen. George Elliot offers his hand to the fallen Spanish officer; Don Jose de Barboza refuses.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s audio guide explains: “It celebrates the compassion of a Victorian British general and illustrates the gentlemanly behavior of noble officers on opposing sides of a conflict.”

American Hero

Leaving the Era of the Revolution Gallery and entering the History, Landscape, and National Identity Gallery is akin to leaving one grand world and entering another. Straight ahead is a massive painting titled “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” by Emmanuel Leutze. It measures larger than 12 feet high and 21 feet wide.

It depicts George Washington crossing the Delaware on Christmas night, 1776. After crossing the river, he defeats the Hessian mercenaries at the Battle of Trenton, which becomes his most celebrated victory.

The painting is not historically accurate. According to the audio guide, the boats are actually going in the wrong direction, the ice in the river is depicted as too large, and there is no way the boats could carry artillery and horses.

According to Ushistory.org, a website hosted by the Independence Hall Association of Philadelphia, it was actually night when they crossed the river, and the weather was horrible.

The river is not modeled after the Delaware River but rather after the Rhine River in Germany, where the painting was completed by Leutze. Moreover, the flag depicted is not the actual flag that would have been used at the time.

The objective of the painting, however, is to depict the grandeur of the event. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed on the occasion of the inauguration of the New American Wing, “I’m well-aware of historical quibbles, but sometimes metaphor and image tell the story even better.”

The painting is indeed well-painted, using the representational techniques of the time. The size of the painting alone is enough to instill awe to the viewer.

One could say that Leutze’s artistic interpretation and story-telling ability is capable of leaving viewers contemplating their own place in history, and it leaves them inspired by what has now become a mythical and iconic part of American history.

Carrie Barratt, associate director for Collections and Administration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, mentioned how it is necessary to give Leutze the benefit of the doubt. Leutze painted “Washington Crossing the Delaware” 75 years after the event: “He used studio mates and friends to pose for Washington and the men in the boat. ...

Next: Landscapes

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Heart of the Andes_1859

“He used, for Washington’s head, the life mask that was cast by Jean-Antoine Houdon. ... Leutze got the uniform from the Smithsonian. ... Although we love to point out the inaccuracies, ... he tried as hard as he could to make this as accurate as possible.”

Landscapes

The same gallery includes the landscape paintings of Frederich Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt. The “Heart of the Andes,” by Church, was the first-ever documented look at the Andes mountains. Church traveled to Ecuador and made many sketches of the area.

According to the audio guide, Church combined over 100 miles of landscape into this one painting. The scene painted is not one that actually exists in nature but is one that Church conjured up from his notes, sketches, and imagination.

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The Rocky Mountains Landers Peak_1863

Albert Bierstadt accompanied a government expedition to the Rocky Mountains led by Col. Frederick Lander. Like Church, Bierstadt made sketches on his journey with the expedition. He completed the full painting “Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak” when he returned to his studio in New York.

At the famous Metropolitan Sanitary Fair in 1864, these two landscapes were shown across from each other just as they are today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Madame_X_1883

 

Portraits and Sculptures

John Singer Sargent’s painting “Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)” is also on display. This painting is considered an American masterpiece and Sargent’s greatest portrait. Upon seeing Madame Pierre Gautreau, Sargent requested to paint her.

He painted her seductively, with a strap of her dress fallen from one shoulder. When the painting was entered in the Paris Salon of 1884, it was considered unaesthetic. Madame Pierre Gautreau requested to have it removed. Sargent refused but later repainted the strap of her dress back on her shoulder to respect her modesty.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has included a reference photograph of the original painting next to the repainted one.

The sculptures in the exhibit are also well-done and indicative of early America’s innovative spirit and broad mindset.

Jean-Antoine Houdon’s marble bust of Benjamin Franklin is very lifelike. Curator Thayer Tolles said for the audio tour, “This is a ... speaking likeness because he really looks like he’s about to open his mouth and start talking.”

James Earle Fraser’s bronze cast titled “End of the Trail” shows the negative impact of white settlers on Native Americans. Tolles stated, “Fraser was very aware of the plight of Native Americans at a time when the U.S. government was forcing them onto reservation land.”

Fraser’s work of art is regarded the most popular sculpture of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.

Thomas Crawford’s marble sculpture “The Babes in the Wood” depicts two children who lie lifelessly next to each other. Crawford attempted to “soften the anguish of death” by linking it to the “innocence and calm through the untroubled expressions on the children’s faces, their gently intertwined hands, and the pure whiteness of the marble” the audio tour states.

Many other significant artists such as Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Benjamin West, James McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, and John Singleton Copley are also included in this must-see exhibition.

The American Wing renovation project included a new 19th century Beaux Arts gallery architectural design to best exhibit the American paintings and sculptures, which, for the first time, are exhibited chronologically on a single floor. The completion of the renovation project has now allowed nearly all 17,000 works of the American Wing to be exhibited.

Part 1 of the renovation project opened in 2007 and included the classical arts of America. The Charles Engelhard Court and the Period Rooms were the second part to be renovated and were opened in 2009. The opening of the new galleries includes performances, lectures, private gallery tours, and much more.

Eric Bess, Ph.D. is a fine artist, a writer on art-related topics, and an assistant professor at Fei Tian College in Middletown, New York.
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