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Samuel F. B. Morse

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Metadata Embedded, 2019
Samuel F. B. Morse
Date: 1831–33
Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection
Object number: 1992.51
Text Entries: Samuel F. B. Morse championed the fine arts in the United States but believed there were benefits from studying the best examples of Old World culture. He conceived Gallery of the Louvre as an instructive lesson on European painting that would tour the United States. During its brief exhibition in New York City, however, the painting failed to attract an audience. Its mostly Protestant viewers, schooled in democratic principles, had misgivings when confronted with art that endorsed monarchy, an aristocratic elite and Catholicism. American art lovers, though, were already familiar with European art that had been transformed by American artists to suit the needs of a newly founded Republic-landscapes, portraits and, surprisingly, religious motifs. These European prototypes are found in the miniaturized paintings incorporated in Gallery of the Louvre and can be compared to their American adaptations. Although he employed the compositional techniques of Nicolas Poussin's (1594-1665) "classical landscape" painting, William Groombridge's View of a Manor House-which depicts the site of George Washington's headquarters for the first victory in the Revolutionary War-reinterprets an ideal landscape as democratic. Portraiture was easily adjusted to serve a democracy, whose free market system celebrated the individual. The enigmatic smile of Thomas Sully's beautiful daughter Blanch suggests a comparison with Leonardo da Vinci's (1452-1519) portrait of Mona Lisa. Erastus Field's naïve-style portrait of Clarissa Cook, commissioned by her well-to-do family, provides clues to her family's material success in the same manner as Peter Paul Rubens's (1577-1640) elegant portrayal of a wealthy businessman's wife. Portraits of children celebrate both the individual while also serving as a symbol for the young country, as seen in itinerant painter Ammi Phillips's portrait of Mary Elizabeth Smith. In a similar fashion, Bartolomé Murillo's (1617-1682) naturalistic portrayal in A Beggar Boy represents an idealized childhood that serves as a Spanish national emblem. Genre subjects were introduced into American art through engravings of seventeenth and eighteenth century Dutch and British scenes of daily life. Using familiar figures and their gestures found in European art, John Lewis Krimmel in Blind Man's Buff created a new art form that suited the needs of a new democratic state. Revisiting a theme associated with Catholic art, many examples of which are found in Morse's picture, John James Barralet's Apotheosis of Washington demonstrates the difficulty in transforming a biblical image to honor a cultural hero. Likewise, while Morse's grand experiment to teach art history through Gallery of the Louvre met resistance, he succeeded in creating an icon of transatlantic cultural exchange.
Metadata Embedded, 2019
Samuel F. B. Morse
Date: between 1831 and 1832
Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Gift of Berry-Hill Galleries in honor of Daniel J. Terra
Object number: C1984.5
Text Entries: Kloss, William. <i>Samuel F.B. Morse</i>. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., Publishers in association with the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1988. Text p. 130, ill. p. 131 (color).<br><br> Reymond, Nathalie. <i>Un regard américain sur Paris</i> (<i>An American Glance at Paris</i>). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1997. Text p. 70; ill. p. 67 (color).<br><br> Cartwright, Derrick R. <i>The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920</i>. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2001. Text p. 24 (checklist).<br><br> Cartwright, Derrick R. <i>L'Héroïque et le quotidian: les artistes américains, 1820–1920</i>. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2001. Text p. 24 (checklist).<br><br> Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. <i>An American Point of View: The Daniel J. Terra Collection</i>. Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2002. Text p. 50.<br><br> Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. <i>Un regard transatlantique. La collection d'art américain de Daniel J. Terra</i>. Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2002. Text p. 50.<br><br> Brownlee, Peter John. <i>A New Look: Samuel F. B. Morse's "Gallery of the Louvre."</i> (exh. brochure, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.). Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2011. Text, p. 3; ill. fig. 4 (color).<br><br> Brownlee, Peter John. <i>Samuel F. B. Morse’s Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention</i>. (exh. cat., The Huntington Library, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Seattle Art Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, Peabody Essex Museum, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, New Britain Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2014. Text p. 24, 103; ill. p. 24 (color).<br><br>