Ivelisse Medina

ENG 241

Culture Collection Report

Dr. Thomas L. Long

Chrysler Museum of Art- American Painting and Sculpture

I had the opportunity to visit the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia on June 4, 2002. The emphasis was on the museum’s collection of American paintings and sculptures from the colonial period through the 19^th century, coinciding with the periods covered in my American literature course. The collections were quite extensive and diverse relative to the specific focus of the 18^th and 19^th century American artists. Although I was impressed with the collection as a whole, I was most drawn to an 1870 painting by Albert Bierstadt, for its magnificent scale and transcendental beauty.

The grand scale of Albert Bierstadt’s painting The Emerald Pool is truly amazing. Its dimensions are 76.5 in. x 119 in. Not only is the canvas of large scale, but the landscape itself is of monumental proportions. The eye does not immediately focus on the pool for which this painting is titled. The huge, overpowering mountains and the majestic clouds direct the attention slowly from the sky to the mountains and down the falls to the pool. The tall trees frame this brilliant scenery, almost shielding the Emerald Pool below. The monumental landscape shown in this painting is important because it is a uniquely American concept.

Although Bierstadt’s The Emerald Pool is a large landscape scene, almost double in scale is a painting by the preeminent American Romantic painter Thomas Cole. Cole’s magnificent painting The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, also displayed at the Chrysler Museum, is 101.5 x 185.5 in. Cole is known for his panoramic landscape paintings of a large, American, scale.

Both The Emerald Pool and The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds are monumental landscape paintings, but they differ in object size and theme. In contrast to the figures of Cole’s painting, which seem dwarfed by the vast and open panorama, Bierstadt’s objects of nature dominate the scene, with their overpowering presence. While Cole’s subject for his painting is traditional-the angel’s announcement of the birth of Christ to the shepherds, Bierstadt’s painting reflects themes of transcendental romanticism.

Some of the major themes of the transcendental Romantic Movement are beautifully captured in The Emerald Pool. This painting reflects the restorative and healing powers of nature. Its majestic feel presents nature in a divine light. Nature holds a sacred place worthy of worship. The Emerald Pool reflects the optimism of transcendentalists. It is a return to the wild, in its most untamed and disorderly state. The tree’s branches are free to twist and snarl primitively. A family of deer at the bottom left corner of this painting live peacefully, instinctively, quietly. The scene is devoid of any human presence. Nature here is a glorious escape from civilization. This scene seems to have transcended time, a secret garden untouched since Creation. This pure Eden is a haven from the corruptive influence of civilization.

Another painting that expresses social concerns of transcendental romanticists is The Old Mill by Jasper Francis Cropsey in 1876. The theme in this painting centers on the issue of industrialization along the Hudson River. With the influence of the Luminism Movement, everything in this painting seems to give off its own light. It is brightly optimistic. Although it reflects the concerns of a growing industrial society, this painting does not regard humanity in a negative light.

Unlike Bierstadt’s painting, which is nostalgic for nature in its purest form, Cropsey’s painting is an appeal to rustic living. Cropsey’s manages to capture humans coexisting with nature in a happy and harmonious setting. The call in The Old Mill is for a return to good country living. As industry grew, transcendentalists became concerned for the effects it would have on nature. While The Emerald Pool reveres an uninhabited realm, Cropsey’s painting is a hope for humans to live respectfully alongside nature. The mill with its water wheel, the man and woman standing on a log bridge with a dog, and the ducks, cattle, and canoes along the water is a quaint view of country life. Cropsey incorporates humans as part of larger nature, as if attempting to preserve a fading scene.

The changing history and culture of America from the colonial times through the 19^th century is marked by the varying styles of visual arts during this period. The Chrysler Museum collection has captured the nuances of this evolving American identity. Students of American literature can follow the trends in an emerging culture by viewing this collection and comparing it to similar changes in literary styles.

The struggles of an emerging culture are depicted in the visual arts as well as in literature. The ideal of a Puritan sensibility to wealth is displayed alongside aristocratic decadence. The decline in artistic quality from the detailed 18^th century English contemporary paintings to a lower status 18^th century art reflects the social and economic changes in American history. America was turning away from English patronage to formulate its own unique identity.

The colonial era, the Enlightenment and the Romantic Movement in American history is documented through the arts. The creation of an American mythology, the guilt and nostalgia over the vanishing Indian, the ideal depiction of heroes, the romanticizing of rural life and the neoclassical justification for slavery can also be viewed in this collection, as well as in American literature. Although I chose to focus on the transcendental painting The Emerald Pool by Albert Bierstadt, the changes of a growing American culture, both its struggles and its progress, is on display at the Chrysler Museum, for all to witness, for all to learn from.