American Painting and Sculpture to 1945

What is American about American art? Visitors will find more than one answer to that question in the Indianapolis Museum of Art Noyes Suite of American Art Galleries, which houses nearly 200 works of art created before 1945.

The collection is located on the first floor of the Krannert Pavilion and is divided into several areas focusing on stylistic movements from colonial portraiture to modernism. Visitors can view works from Early American, Indiana and Turn of the Century artists, as well as American Impressionists, Urban Realists, and American Modernists.

During a tour of the American collection, visitors will find a portrait of George Washington (1788) representing his military victory at Princeton, New Jersey, during the Revolutionary War. Visitors are encouraged to sit in front of a large stained glass window from the studio of Louis Comfort Tiffany titled Angel of the Resurrection (1904) which was commissioned by the widow of President Benjamin Harrison. Georgia O’Keeffe and Edward Hopper are well represented within the collection with multiple canvases on display including O’Keeffe’s large floral painting Jimson Weed (1936) which hung in the Elizabeth Arden Salon in New York City. Jacob Lawrence’s Untitled (The Birth) (1938) and Horace Pippin’s The Blue Tiger (1933) are some of the important artists the visitor will see in the museum’s African American collection.

American Impressionism

Ritman, Louis | Sunlit Window

Frieseke, Frederick Carl | Afternoon - Yellow Room

Twachtman, John Henry | A Summer Day

John Sharman | At the End of the Porch

Ritman, Louis | Early Morning Sunshine

Daniel Garber | Pioneer's House

Miller, Richard Emile | Afternoon Tea

Daniel Garber | Quarry at Byram

Frieseke, Frederick Carl | The Robe

William Merritt Chase | Woman in White

Reid, Robert | Portrait of Mrs. Robert Reid

Hassam, Childe | Cliff Rock - Appledore

William Merritt Chase | After the Shower

The Village Rider
Johansen, John Christen (American, 1876-c. 1964-1966)

Johansen, John Christen | The Village Rider

Arthur Clifton Goodwin | Liberty Loan Parade

Weir, Julian Alden | Still Life

Hawthorne, Charles Webster | Sketch, Hyannisport

Vonnoh, Robert William | Poppies

The Old Bridge
Carrigan, William L.

Carrigan, William L. | The Old Bridge

Mulhaupt, Frederick John | Ice Bound Vessels

Benson, Frank Weston | Sunlight

The Black Hat (Miss Dorothy Hart)
Dearth, Henry Golden (American, 1864-1918)

Dearth, Henry Golden | The Black Hat (Miss Dorothy Hart)

William Merritt Chase | First Touch of Autumn

Tarbell, Edmund Charles | Preparing for the Matinee

Paxton, William McGregor | Girl Sweeping

The American Scene

American Scene painting, also known as Regionalism, is a style devoted to the realistic depiction of the varied aspects of American life. Artists like Thomas Hart Benton favored subjects that showed life in the rural Midwest. Midwestern Regionalists concentrated on the heartland’s moral values and the people’s devotion to hard work and their community lifestyle. Other artists took their subject matter from the streets of New York like Isabel Bishop and Reginald Marsh or New York’s upper class society, a favorite subject of Guy Pène Du Bois. Edward Hopper reflected on the character of the American people and painted images suggesting isolation and alienation. A group of American Scene painters known as Social Realists focused on the hardships of everyday life and the social problems facing Americans. Many African American artists participated in the American Scene and Social realist movements by recording the every day life of Black Americans in Harlem, the South and other urban areas across the United States.

Benton, Thomas Hart | Henry Look Unhitching

Hopper, Edward | New York, New Haven and Hartford

Du Bois, Guy Pène | Portia in a Pink Blouse

Marsh, Reginald | Hauptmann Must Die

Higgins, Victor | Mountains and Valleys

Du Bois, Guy Pène | Promenade

Poe, Hugh M. | Herman and Verman

Higgins, Victor | Indian Girl with Parrot and Hoop

Olinsky, Ivan Gregorovitch | Portrait of Charles Ballard as a Boy

Hopper, Edward | Hotel Lobby

Savage, Eugene Francis | Bacchanal (The Four Seasons)

Kroll, Leon | The Red Tam

Lawrence, Jacob | Untitled (The Birth)

Ford, Lauren | Bethlehem

Bishop, Isabel | Tidying Up

Burchfield, Charles Ephraim | The Black Barn

John W. Hardrick | Little Brown Girl

Burchfield, Charles Ephraim | Road in Early Spring

Kent, Rockwell | Winter Landscape

Brook, Alexander | Portrait of Reginald Marsh

Higgins, Victor | New Mexico Calvary (Holy Week Procession)

John W. Hardrick | Winter Landscape

Hopper, Floyd D. | Blue Monday

Rockwell, Norman | The Love Song

Delaney, Joseph | The Artist's Party

William H. Johnson | Training for War

Augusta Savage | Gamin

Pippin, Horace | The Blue Tiger

American Modernism

American modernists of the early twentieth century represented a wide range of personal visions influenced by avante-garde painting in Europe. The earliest group of American modernists was the Stieglitz Group. American photographer, Alfred Stieglitz supported some of the most progressive developments in early twentieth century art. Beginning as early as 1905, he exhibited both European and American Modernism in his art galleries and helped launch the careers of Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove and John Marin, who became the core members of the Stieglitz Group. The event that proved to be a catalyst for the growth of American Modernism was the Armory Show of 1913 held in New York. The exhibition exposed a large American audience to abstract art. For the first time, visitors to this show saw the fragmented style of Cubism and the charged colors and distorted forms of Fauvism and Expressionism. Under the influence of these new styles, American artists began creating their own abstract compositions. What tied modernist artists together was a desire to break away from the conventions of representational art, along with the rules of perspective, color, and composition in order to work out their own visions freed from the necessity of replicating physical appearances.

Manship, Paul | Indian Hunter with Dog

Hartley, Marsden | Mushrooms on a Blue Background

Ary Stillman | Walpurgisnacht (Night of the Witches)

Roszak, Theodore | Girl at the Piano: Recording Sound

Manship, Paul | The Flight of Europa

O'Keeffe, Georgia | Pelvis with Distance

O'Keeffe, Georgia | Grey Hills

Archipenko, Alexander | Promenade

Held, John II | Manhattan Skyline

Stevens, Will Henry | Winged Form

Lachaise, Gaston | Acrobat

Lachaise, Gaston | Sea Gull

American | Untitled (Wild Flowers and Leaves)

Marin, John | Hurricane

Calder, Alexander | Untitled

Hartley, Marsden | Melons

Kuhn, Walt | Green Apples with Gray Curtain

John Bradley Storrs | New York

Siqueiros, David Alfaro | The Electric Forest

Morris, George Lovett Kingsland | Concretion

Manship, Paul | Venus Anadyomene

O'Keeffe, Georgia | Jimson Weed

Bearden, Romare Howard | He Is Risen (The Passion of Christ Series)

Edward F. Fisk | Rooftops, New York City

Dove, Arthur Garfield | Reflections

Early American

The first American school of landscape painting developed in the mid-nineteenth century and became known as the Hudson River School, because many of the artists painted in the Hudson Valley in upstate New York and the surrounding New England region. The Hudson River area provided artists with an unsettled wilderness that was uniquely American. Their scenes were romantic views of the landscape, including pastoral settings where humans and nature coexisted peacefully. Many of these views promoted the idea that nature was a healing place and a way that people could communicate with God, while other scenes showed the negative impact of development and technology on the American wilderness. Some painters traveled beyond the Hudson River Valley to explore the West and exotic areas such as Alaska and South America. A group of Hudson River School artists used a style that would become known as Luminism, which depicts meticulously detailed and clearly organized, tranquil land and seascapes with a strong emphasis on light. Portraiture was the most popular type of painting in America from colonial times well into the nineteenth century. Affluent sitters posed in their finest clothes against landscape backdrops or in well-appointed interiors to document their status in the New World. A market emerged for images of the young nation’s leaders, and George Washington became a popular subject for the portrait artist. Portraiture served a documentary purpose for early Americans that is filled by the camera today. Miniatures, tiny watercolor on ivory portraits, were popular through the mid-nineteenth century and could be worn around the neck or easily carried and served a similar purpose as photographs we now carry in our wallets.

Inman, Henry | Portrait of Clara Fisher

Bierstadt, Albert | Alaska

Whittredge, Worthington | Summer Pastorale (View of Kallenfels)

Whittredge, Worthington | Lake Shawangunk

Bricher, Alfred Thompson | Morning at Grand Manan

Hunt, William Morris | Ideal Head

Morse, Samuel Finley Breese | Portrait of Dr. James E. B. Finley

Percival De Luce | An Anxious Mother

Shaw, Joshua | The Pioneers

Codman, Charles | The Moose Hunter

Duncanson, Robert Scott | Loch Long

Moran, Edward | The Valley in the Sea

Inness, George | The Rainbow

Church, Frederic Edwin | Our Flag

Bradford, William | Whaler and Fishing Vessels near the Coast of Labrador

Stuart, Gilbert | Portrait of a Young Woman

Stuart, Gilbert | Marianne Ashley Walker

Cropsey, Jasper Francis | Summer, Lake Ontario

Durand, Asher Brown | Landscape with Covered Wagon

Peale, Rembrandt | Portrait of Helen Miller (Mrs. Charles G. McLean)

Peale, Charles Willson | George Washington at Princeton

Whittredge, Worthington | Landscape

Indiana

Indiana art reached the national spotlight when the Hoosier Group artists were named the earliest regional exponents of the impressionist style. This group of artists consisted of T. C. Steele, often cited as its leading member, J. Ottis Adams, William Forsyth, Richard Gruelle and Otto Stark. Gruelle was primarily a self-taught artist, while Adams, Forsyth and Steele studied abroad at the Royal Academy in Munich, Germany. Stark chose to continue his art training in Paris, but they all returned to their native state to paint the Indiana landscape. The Hoosier Group depicted the beauty of a land that was often thought of as lacking in splendor and majesty and were celebrated for their ability to capture their scenes on canvas with a clear, fresh approach and a fidelity to the subject. The Hoosier Group artists put Indiana on the map of important art communities and made the citizens of the state and the country recognize the special magnificence of the Indiana landscape.

Robert W. Davidson | Praying Angel

Hays, Barton Stone | Strawberries

Praying Monk
Forsyth, William J. (American, 1854-1935)

Forsyth, William J. | Praying Monk

Hilliard, William Henry | Italian Roses

Christian, Grant Wright | The Edge of Town

Adams, John Ottis | Wash Day

Cox, Jacob | Brook in Summer

Still Life with Flowerpot
Paul E. Beem (American, 1908- )

Paul E. Beem | Still Life with Flowerpot

Love, John Washington | The Sycamores (Broad Ripple)

Excursion
Donald Mattison (American, 1905-1975)

Donald Mattison | Excursion

T.C. Steele | Late Afternoon, Dachau Moor

Richards, Samuel G. | Study Head (Old Man)

Richardson, Constance | Hot Sun

Robert Weaver | Circus Poster

Cox, Jacob | Portrait of Charles H. Brewer (Boy Fishing with Dog)

Cox, Jacob | Landscape near Indianapolis

Fontainebleau Forest
Love, John Washington (American, 1850-1880)

Love, John Washington | Fontainebleau Forest

Ketcham, Susan Merrill | Study of a Hat

Wagenhals, Katherine H. | The Visitor

Katrina
Adams, John Ottis (American, 1851-1927)

Adams, John Ottis | Katrina

Frosty Morning
Adams, John Ottis (American, 1851-1927)

Adams, John Ottis | Frosty Morning

Love, John Washington | Head of a Boy

Winter, George | Landscape near Lafayette

Study Head (Old Woman)
Adams, John Ottis (American, 1851-1927)

Adams, John Ottis | Study Head (Old Woman)

T.C. Steele | Pleasant Run

Ruth P. Bobbs | Woman in White

Wheeler, Clifton A. | In the Catskills

The Munich Model
T.C. Steele (American, 1847-1926)

T.C. Steele | The Munich Model

Mayer, Henrik Martin | Halloween Carnival

Cecil F. Head | Buildings in Winter

Landscape
Love, John Washington (American, 1850-1880)

Love, John Washington | Landscape

Richards, Samuel G. | Old Peasant Woman

Still Life
Cecil F. Head (American, 1906- )

Cecil F. Head | Still Life

William Merritt Chase | Portrait of William Gurley Munson

T.C. Steele | Munich Girl

Richards, Samuel G. | Study Head (Bearded Man)

Winter in Munich
T.C. Steele (American, 1847-1926)

T.C. Steele | Winter in Munich

Picnic on the Allegheny
Mayer, Henrik Martin (American, 1909-1972)

Mayer, Henrik Martin | Picnic on the Allegheny

Near Pleasant Run, Irvington, Indianapolis
Wheeler, Clifton A. (American, 1883-1953)

Wheeler, Clifton A. | Near Pleasant Run, Irvington, Indianapolis

Adams, John Ottis | Thornberry's Pasture

Richards, Samuel G. | Young German Girl (Gretchen?)

Winter, George | Scene on the Wabash (near Pipe Creek)

Portrait of George Babette Mayer McCullough
Goth, Marie (American, 1887-1975)

Goth, Marie | Portrait of George Babette Mayer McCullough

Forsyth, William J. | Old Market Woman

Bates, Dewey | Portrait of John Washington Love

Goth, Marie | Portrait of Theodore Clement Steele

March Wind, Detroit River
Richardson, Constance (American, 1905-February 4, 2002)

Richardson, Constance | March Wind, Detroit River

Late Autumn
Adams, John Ottis (American, 1851-1927)

Adams, John Ottis | Late Autumn

William Merritt Chase | Still Life with Hummingbird

Study Head (Old Woman)
Forsyth, William J. (American, 1854-1935)

Forsyth, William J. | Study Head (Old Woman)

River View Row
Randolph Coats (American)

Randolph Coats | River View Row

Nude Child (Seaweed)
Scudder, Janet (American, 1873-1940)

Scudder, Janet | Nude Child (Seaweed)

Edmund Brucker | Monday Morning

Adams, John Ottis | Figure Study (Old Man)

Hays, Barton Stone | Portrait of Eusebia Sewell

American | Ohio River Boat

John G. Dunn | Temperance Pledge

Landscape with Bridge
American

American | Landscape with Bridge

Adams, John Ottis | The Widow, Munich

Hegler, John Jacob | Portrait of Alice Lyons

Donald Mattison | Carnival

Nocturnal Landscape
Winter, George (American, 1810-1876)

Winter, George | Nocturnal Landscape

Wayman Adams | Portrait of Alexander Ernestinoff

American | Untitled (Wild Flowers and Leaves)

Stark, Otto | A Summer Morning

Wayman Adams | The Art Jury

David K. Rubins | Seated Nude

Hays, Barton Stone | Portrait of Dr. Lewis D. Lyons

T.C. Steele | The Bloom of the Grape

William Merritt Chase | Moses Swaim

Forrest F. Stark | Portrait of William Forsyth

Cox, Jacob | Farmyard Scene

Portrait of W. Franklyn Paris
William Merritt Chase (American, 1849-1916)

William Merritt Chase | Portrait of W. Franklyn Paris

T.C. Steele | A June Idyl

Glessing, Thomas B. | Landscape with Figures

Garo Z. Antreasian | Signs of the Times

Richardson, Constance | Streetlight

Portrait of Laura Owen Miller (Mrs. Julian Bamberger)
Ruth P. Bobbs (American, 1884-1973)

Ruth P. Bobbs | Portrait of Laura Owen Miller (Mrs. Julian Bamberger)

T.C. Steele | Village of Schliersee, Highlands

Nude
David K. Rubins (American, 1902-1985)

David K. Rubins | Nude

Hays, Barton Stone | Portrait of William Sewell

Joseph R. Mason | Portrait of Marie Jane Andrew

Scudder, Janet | Frog Fountain

Copy of painting 'Money Counters' by Bartholome Esteban Murillo
Adams, John Ottis (American, 1851-1927)

Adams, John Ottis | Copy of painting 'Money Counters' by Bartholome Esteban Murillo

Gruelle, Richard Buckner | The CanalMorning Effect

Easton, Joseph | Portrait of Amelia Studley

Hopper, Floyd D. | Blue Monday

Elaine
Randolph Coats (American)

Randolph Coats | Elaine

Sunrise
T.C. Steele (American, 1847-1926)

T.C. Steele | Sunrise

Winter, George | Scene on the Wabash

Rotunda

The focal point of the Rotunda area of the American gallery is the Tiffany Window, a stained glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany commissioned by Benjamin Harrison’s widow to honor her late husband. The Rotunda also contains a work by Theodor Groll entitled Washington Street, Indianapolis at Dusk which shows what life was like in the city in 1883. The other three paintings are large works of art that complement the space.

William Merritt Chase | Dorothy

Groll, Theodor | Washington Street, Indianapolis at Dusk

Hawthorne, Charles Webster | Provincetown Fisherman

Weinman, Adolph Alexander | Bust of President Benjamin Harrison

Paxton, William McGregor | Glow of Gold, Gleam of Pearl

Turn of the Century

Several types of art became prominent in the nineteenth century, including genre and still life painting. The term “genre” refers to depictions of scenes from everyday life. This type of painting emerged in America when the prospering new country gave rise to a public eager for pictures of people at work and play. Depictions of the Civil War and its aftermath and paintings of childhood and domestic scenes were often sentimental views. Winslow Homer’s images of sailing, hunting and other pastimes rely more on realism than sentimentality and create a sense that the scene is the result of direct observation. The depiction of common inanimate objects, such as flowers, fruit, books, musical instruments and tableware is called “still life.” This subject became popular in the nineteenth century and continues to flourish as a viable topic for American artists. Still life paintings can be straightforward representations or they may contain hidden moral messages and references to the transience of life. In the late nineteenth century a style of still life painting developed known as trompe l’oeil. Artists who painted in this manner created images that made the viewer think the objects were real. With meticulous clarity trompe l’oeil artists depicted paper money, photographs, writing implements, books and other objects that seem to extend beyond the canvas into the viewer’s space. In the 1880s a method of painting emerged called Tonalism, which consisted of muted colors and loose brush strokes that suggested fading light, misty weather and a quiet, meditative atmosphere. Many nineteenth century artists studied abroad in the academies of Europe and some of these painters chose to remain there when their education was completed. These artists are known as expatriates. Among the most famous of this group are John Singer Sargent and James Abbott McNeil Whistler.

MacMonnies, Frederick William | Bacchante and Infant Faun

Blakelock, Ralph Albert | Above the Clouds

Hitchcock, George | Calypso

William Merritt Chase | The Artist's Mother, Sarah Swaim Chase

Duveneck, Frank | Henry James, Sr.

Saint-Gaudens, Augustus | Diana

Lambdin, George Cochran | The Consecration, 1861

William Merritt Chase | Portrait of My Father, David H. Chase

Saint-Gaudens, Augustus | Portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson

Blakelock, Ralph Albert | Pool in the Adirondacks

Beard, William Holbrook | His Majesty Receives

Burnham, Thomas Mickell | The Young Artist

Pan of Rohallion
MacMonnies, Frederick William

MacMonnies, Frederick William | Pan of Rohallion

John Singer Sargent | The Olive Grove

Atkinson, Jacob | Souvenir of the Columbian Exposition

Melchers, Gari | Joan of Arc

Study Head
William Merritt Chase (American, 1849-1916)

William Merritt Chase | Study Head

Dodson, Sarah Paxton Ball | The Bacidae

John Singer Sargent | Portrait of James Whitcomb Riley

Carlsen, Emil | Still Life

Harrison, Birge | The Harbor Light

Dabo, Leon | Rondout, New York

Eakins, Thomas | The Pianist (Stanley Addicks)

Duveneck, Frank | Polling Landscape

Carlsen, Dines | The Jade Bowl

Rogers, Randolph | Ruth Gleaning

William Merritt Chase | Still Life with Fish

Blumenschein, Mary Shepard Greene | Louisa Fletcher

Inness, George | Orange Road, Tarpon Springs

Beckwith, James Carroll | Portrait of William Merritt Chase

William Merritt Chase | Study of a Young Woman

Moonrise
Tryon, Dwight William (American, 1849-1925)

Tryon, Dwight William | Moonrise

Taggart, Lucy Martha | Eleanor

Smith, Russell | On the Pennypack

Scott, Julian | A Break: Playing Cards

Blumenschein, Ernest Leonard | Portrait of a German Tragedian

Tryon, Dwight William | November Morning

Beaux, Cecilia | Portrait of Mrs. Addison C. Harris

Thayer, Abbott Handerson | Margaret MacKittrick

Diana
MacMonnies, Frederick William

MacMonnies, Frederick William | Diana

Scott, William Edouard | Rainy Night, Etaples

Currier, Joseph Frank | The Whistling Boy

Duveneck, Frank | Reclining Nude

Brown, Bolton Coit | Chinese Fishing Village, Monterey Bay, California

Thayer, Abbott Handerson | Still Life

Currier, Joseph Frank | Landscape near Dachau

William Merritt Chase | Red Snapper

Bell, Edward August | Portrait of a Young Woman

Guy, Seymour Joseph | Temptation

Homer, Winslow | The Boat Builders

William Merritt Chase | The Big Brass Bowl

Early Autumn
Murphy, John Francis

Murphy, John Francis | Early Autumn

Sunset - Red and Gold
Ranger, Henry Ward

Ranger, Henry Ward | Sunset - Red and Gold

Scudder, Janet | Frog Fountain

Moonlight
Blakelock, Ralph Albert (American, 1947-1919)

Blakelock, Ralph Albert | Moonlight

William Merritt Chase | Still Life: Brass Bowl

Haberle, John | U.S.A.

Whistler, James Abbott McNeill | Harmony in Pink and Gray: Lady Meux

Bell, Edward August | The Statuette

Urban Realism

The Ashcan School was the most important group of urban realists. They are known for their scenes of daily life in the poor urban areas of New York. These artists were part of a group known as The Eight, who exhibited together only once in 1908. Their style and subject matter opposed the conservative American art establishment of the early 20th century. The Eight included Robert Henri, John Sloan, George Luks, Everitt Shinn, William Glackens, Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Lawson and Maurice Prendergast. Henri, Sloan, Luks, Shinn and Glackens were dubbed the Ashcan School because of their gritty urban scenes that sometimes included ashcans. Their style consisted of a dark, subdued pallet with rapid, loose, thickly applied brushwork. This group rebelled against the celebration of beauty and affluence favored by the Impressionsts. The three other members of The Eight displayed a variety of styles from the pointillist technique of Prendergast, to the romantic symbolist art of Davies and the subdued impressionist style with an urban focus favored by Lawson.