Art in Colonial & Federal America
Gallery 1
Settlers in the new world brought European artistic styles and preferences with them. In colonial and federal era America, portraiture was the predominant art form. Portraits not only revealed Americans’ desire to preserve images of themselves and their families, but also the Puritan view that portraiture was an acceptable art. This was because portraits were affordable only by those with an excess of income, and earthly success was believed to be dependent upon heavenly approval. Eighteenth and early 19th-century portraits also inform us about Americans’ taste, social status, contemporary clothing, and life preferences. Portraiture remained the popular and premier art form well into the 19th century.
Other acceptable artistic subject matter at this time was based upon standards of the European academic artistic establishments and embraced works that told historical and biblical stories. |
