The American Pre-Raphaelites was a movement of landscape painters in the United States during the mid-19th century. It was named for its connection to the

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

and for the influence of

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

on its members. Painter Thomas Charles Farrer led the movement, and many members were active

abolitionists Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

. Their work together was short-lived, and the movement had mostly dissolved by 1870. The American Pre-Raphaelites used a vivid, realistic style and, unlike their English counterparts, avoided figurative paintings in favor of landscapes and

still lifes A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, boo ...

. American Pre-Raphaelites promoted still lifes and natural settings for paintings in the 1860s.

History

The influence of English art critic

on art in the United States began with the publication of his first volume of ''

Modern Painters ''Modern Painters'' (1843–1860) is a five-volume work by the Victorian art critic, John Ruskin, begun when he was 24 years old based on material collected in Switzerland in 1842. Ruskin argues that recent painters emerging from the tradition of ...

'' in 1843. Ruskin's emphasis on

plein air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...

painting and painting from life struck a chord with American Transcendentalist ideals. ''Modern Painters'' was read widely by painters and critics like

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

and

Charles Eliot Norton Charles Eliot Norton (November 16, 1827 – October 21, 1908) was an American author, social critic, and Harvard professor of art based in New England. He was a progressive social reformer and a liberal activist whom many of his contemporaries c ...

. According to artist

Worthington Whittredge Thomas Worthington Whittredge (May 22, 1820 – February 25, 1910) was an American artist of the Hudson River School. Whittredge was a highly regarded artist of his time, and was friends with several leading Hudson River School artists includin ...

, ''Modern Painters'' was "in every landscape painter's hand". Small exhibition magazines like ''The Crayon'', first published by

William James Stillman William James Stillman (June 1, 1828July 6, 1901) was an American journalist, diplomat, author, historian, and photographer. Educated as an artist, Stillman subsequently converted to the profession of journalism, working primarily as a war corre ...

in 1855, popularized the art of the

. After a trip to England, Stillman joined a group of artists who met at the Brooklyn home of

Henry Kirke Brown Henry Kirke Brown (February 24, 1814 in Leyden, Massachusetts – July 10, 1886 in Newburgh, New York) was an American sculptor. Life He began to paint portraits while still a boy, studied painting in Boston under Chester Harding, learned a lit ...

. Together, they were referred to as "The American Pre-Raphaelites". Curated by Augustus Ruxton and

William Michael Rossetti William Michael Rossetti (25 September 1829 – 5 February 1919) was an English writer and critic. Early life Born in London, Rossetti was a son of immigrant Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti and his wife Frances Rossetti ''née'' Polidor ...

, an American exhibition of British art in New York in 1857 further spread the ideals of Pre-Raphaelite art, with works like Ruskin's own ''Fragments of the Alps''. When the painter Thomas Charles Farrer moved to the US from England in 1860, he brought new life into the movement. Farrer had trained under Ruskin himself at the Working Men's College in London. On January 27, 1863, he and six friends formed the Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art. ''The Crayon'' had lapsed publication, so the Association began the monthly magazine, ''The New Path'', which ran from May 1863 to December 1865. Ranging from painting to architecture, ''The New Path'' often published essays critical of artists like

Erastus Dow Palmer Erastus Dow Palmer (April 2, 1817March 9, 1904) was an American sculptor. Life Palmer was born in Pompey, New York. He was the second of nine children. He showed early artistic promise, and pursued his father's trade of carpentry. Palmer married ...

and generally supported the detailed, "truthful" works favored by the Pre-Raphaelites and Ruskin. Architecture and art critics Peter B. Wight and

Russell Sturgis Russell Sturgis (; October 16, 1836 – February 11, 1909) was an American architect and art critic of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870. Sturgis was born in Baltimore Cou ...

were some of the main contributors. Although many of the American Pre-Raphaelites had been members of the

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, ...

movement, they rejected its idealized landscapes. Known for its acerbic, cutting criticism, ''The New Path'' criticized painters like

Albert Bierstadt Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was no ...

for their landscapes that upheld beliefs of US

manifest destiny Manifest destiny was a cultural belief in the 19th century in the United States, 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. There were three basic tenets to the concept: * The special vir ...

. After ''The New Path'' ceased publication, the movement unraveled by 1870, partially because of the upheaval of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. The taxing demands of ''plein air'' painting also pushed many American Pre-Raphaelites to move to different styles of painting. For example, William Trost Richards became a

marine painter Marine art or maritime art is a form of figurative art (that is, painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture) that portrays or draws its main inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the sea—a genre part ...

in later life.

Artistic style

William James Stillman (1828-1901) - English Wild Flowers - 1288961 - National Trust

Like the English Pre-Raphaelite movement, the American Pre-Raphaelites exhibited high levels of finish and detail in their paintings, with an attention to natural representation and subjects. William Stillman reportedly once spent three months painting a violet in the foreground of one of his paintings. Similarly, the Pre-Raphaelites often criticized artists like

for not conducting enough studies before executing their paintings: they rebuked Bierstadt's ''

The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak ''The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak'' is an 1863 landscape oil painting by the German-American painter Albert Bierstadt. It is based on sketches made during Bierstadt's travels with Frederick W. Lander's Honey Road Survey Party in 1859. The ...

'' by saying, "twenty times the study that the artist has given to this picture—study represented by actual sketches, built upon a previous ten years ... would not have justified him in attempting to fill so large a canvas". This focus sometimes led the group to be called " Realists", reflecting their opposition to

academic art Academic art, or academicism or academism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie d ...

and the New York

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

. The overall effect is that "the world, subjected to a scientific gaze, is made to disclose a surfeit of detail, turning nature into ornament", according to critic Bailey Trela. As time passed, the American Pre-Raphaelites were criticized as "unimaginative" and for adhering too closely to Ruskin's refutation of emotive art, which uses what he called the

pathetic fallacy The phrase pathetic fallacy is a literary term for the attribution of human emotion and conduct to things found in nature that are not human. It is a kind of personification that occurs in poetic descriptions, when, for example, clouds seem sullen ...

. While they had adopted the naturalist emphasis of English Pre-Raphaelitism, they did not use the moral scenes or medieval settings in their own works. The American artists often depicted "rustic, informal" landscapes and

, and had a predilection for painting birds' nests.

List of artists and writers

Mary Louise Booth Mary Louise Booth (April 19, 1831March 5, 1889) was an American editor, translator, and writer. She was the first editor-in-chief of the women's fashion magazine, ''Harper's Bazaar''. At the age of eighteen, Booth left the family home for New Yo ...

Fidelia Bridges Fidelia Bridges (May 19, 1834 – May 14, 1923) was an American artist of the late 19th century. She was known for delicately detailed paintings that captured flowers, plants, and birds in their natural settings. Although she began as an oil paint ...

Clarence Cook Clarence Chatham Cook (September 8, 1828 – June 2, 1900) was a 19th-century American author and art critic. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Cook graduated from Harvard in 1849 and worked as a teacher. Between 1863 and 1869, Cook wrote a serie ...

Henry Farrer Henry Farrer (March 23, 1844 – February 24, 1903) was an English-born American artist known for his tonalist watercolor landscapes and etchings. Life Farrer was born in London, the younger brother of artist Thomas Charles Farrer. Thomas ...

* Thomas Charles Farrer *

John William Hill John William Hill or often J.W. Hill (January 13, 1812 – September 24, 1879) was a British-born American artist working in watercolor, gouache, lithography, and engraving. Hill's work focused primarily upon natural subjects including landscape ...

Clarence King Clarence Rivers King (January 6, 1842 – December 24, 1901) was an American geologist, mountaineer and author. He was the first director of the United States Geological Survey from 1879 to 1881. Nominated by Republican President Rutherford B. Hay ...

Charles Herbert Moore Charles Herbert Moore (April 10, 1840 – February 15, 1930) was an American university professor, painter, and architectural historian, known as the first director of Harvard University's Fogg Art Museum. He was one of many followers of the ...

* Henry Roderick Newman *

William Trost Richards William Trost Richards (November 14, 1833 – November 8, 1905) was an American landscape artist. He was associated with both the Hudson River School and the American Pre-Raphaelite movement. Biography William Trost Richards was born on November ...

* Sarah Tuthill *

Peter Bonnett Wight Peter B. Wight (1838–1925) was an American 19th-century architect from New York City who worked there and in Chicago. Biography Wight's career "flourished in the 1860s and early 1870s in New York, where he developed a decorative, historicist ...

References

External links

Archive of ''The New Path'', the Society's journal
American art movements Landscape painting Realism (art movement) Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

History

Artistic style

List of artists and writers

References

Further reading

External links