Nineteenth-Century American Painting: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection

by Barbara Novak

Barbara Novak has written an introduction to this catalogue that provides a theoretical framework for looking at this collection in the philosophical context of nineteenth-century American culture. The works of Thomas Cole and the luminists are seen in relation to Transcendentalism as embodied in the writings of Emerson and Thoreau; the later realism of Winslow Homer is seen in relation to the influence of Darwin, and throughout, the domineering influence of nature and the unpastoralized American landscape is seen as a major factor in leading artists trained in European traditions to modify accepted solutions in a way that led to the development of a distinct national identity. Barbara Novak's essay is followed by a detailed and extensive catalogue of the 109 paintings by 55 artists, in which all the paintings in the collection are illustrated in color. The notes on each painting incorporate meticulous original research by a group of young American scholars, and in addition provide provenance and exhibition information and an account of citations in previous literature. A number of comparative illustrations are also included. Brief biographies of the artists, again using new material and accompanied by a bibliography, follow the catalogue section.

330 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

According to the book, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza was the first European collector to focus on 19th-century American painting. The assembled collection is presented in this book. While at the time of publication, the collection was also touring the world and being shown in several museums, the book is really about the collection rather than a catalog of the exhibition, which included only a subset of collected paintings.
The book includes a brief (28 pages) introduction to 19th century American painting, the presentation of the collections, and the supplementary material (artist biographies, index, bibliography). The collection is the core of the book and it is a truly representative collection, which covers the main movements and key American artists of 19th century. Starting from three pre-19th century paintings (Copley and Peale), the collection goes through landscapes, genre paintings of Carr, Brown, and Johnson, Western and Indian topics, still life and trompe l’oeil of Peto and Meurer, realism of Homer and Sargent, orientalism of Weeks, and finally impressionism of Chase, Hassam, Robinson, Frieseke. The largest part of the collection is focused on Hudson School landscape painting. It covers not just main artists that have books devoted to them like Church, Moran, Heade, and Bierstadt, but several other representatives much less known (such as Silva and Richards). Interestingly, the collection sticks closely to 19th-century border when it concerns impressionism – only one painting of Frieseke and one still life of Chase are from the early 20th century, the rest is strictly 19th, which means no late works of Hassam, no Boston School, no Giverny group, and certainly no Ashcan school. However, the majority of Western paintings in the collection are actually from the early 20th century, the golden years of the genre.
As expected, each painting is shown full-page with the opposite page offering full provenance and literature as well as explaining and discussing the painting. For several paintings, this discussion is quite extensive taking 1-2 extra pages after the painting and showing similar paintings (in B/W) to provide context. All that is printed on excellent paper with good color representation. Pages are considerably wide to better present landscapes without turning them sidewise. It is a heavy archival quality book, a pleasure to read and own, especially if you like Hudson River School.