Floor plan

Style galleriesThe American Gilded Age

The American Gilded Age

IN CLOISTER OF CATHEDREAL, LE PUY
This is a painting depicting a bare-knuckle boxing match with two fighters in a ring surrounded by a crowd. Both fighters are men with light skin, and they wear no shirts. The fighter on the left wears orange pants with black dots, while the fighter on the right wears red pants with white dots. Behind these men are two other shirtless men wearing the same types of pants, as well as two other men wearing more formal attire, including jackets, vests, and hats. Outside the ring, a semi-circle of light-skinned men in formal attire watch the central fight. The setting is outdoors, with grass around the feet of the spectators and green hills in the background. Above the group, the sky is light gray.
Sand Dunes, Harlech, North Wales, by George Elbert Burr, 1899
Repose, by John White Alexander, 1895
The Witch's Daughter, by Frederick Stuart Church, 1881
Three Girls and River, by Louis M. Eilshemius, 1907

The works in this room are listed below.

Works in this room

Painting and design in the United States from the Civil War to 1910.

First room, north wall

  1. IN CLOISTER OF CATHEDREAL, LE PUY
    In Cloister of Cathedreal, Le PuyArnold William Brunner, 1883Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  2. This is a painting depicting a bare-knuckle boxing match with two fighters in a ring surrounded by a crowd. Both fighters are men with light skin, and they wear no shirts. The fighter on the left wears orange pants with black dots, while the fighter on the right wears red pants with white dots. Behind these men are two other shirtless men wearing the same types of pants, as well as two other men wearing more formal attire, including jackets, vests, and hats. Outside the ring, a semi-circle of light-skinned men in formal attire watch the central fight. The setting is outdoors, with grass around the feet of the spectators and green hills in the background. Above the group, the sky is light gray.
    Bare KnucklesGeorge A. Hayes, c. 1870/1885Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. Sand Dunes, Harlech, North Wales, by George Elbert Burr, 1899
    Sand Dunes, Harlech, North WalesGeorge Elbert Burr, 1899Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

First room, south wall

  1. Repose, by John White Alexander, 1895
    ReposeJohn White Alexander, 1895Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. The Witch's Daughter, by Frederick Stuart Church, 1881
    The Witch's DaughterFrederick Stuart Church, 1881Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  3. Three Girls and River, by Louis M. Eilshemius, 1907
    Three Girls and RiverLouis M. Eilshemius, 1907Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Second room, south wall

  1. James Abbott McNeill Whistler
    Girl in Black (Pouting Tom)James McNeill Whistler, (1896-1901)Courtesy of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution
  2. We Both Must Fade (Mrs. Fithian), by Lilly Martin Spencer, 1869
    We Both Must Fade (Mrs. Fithian)Lilly Martin Spencer, 1869Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  3. A work made of brush and black gray wash heightened with white gouache over graphite, on cream laminate board.
    "As They Threw their Animals Back upon their Haunches," illustration for An Arabian Day and Night, in Harper's New Monthly MagazineFrederic Remington, n.d.Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Second room, north wall

  1. THE OLD HOPKINSON HOUSE, BORDENTOWN, NJ
    The Old Hopkinson House, Bordentown, NJFrancis Hopkinson Smith, ca. 1880Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  2. Cartoon for mural of Minnesota State Capital, "Institute of Justice", by Kenyon Cox, ca. 1904
    Cartoon for mural of Minnesota State Capital, "Institute of Justice"Kenyon Cox, ca. 1904Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  3. Boy with Anchor, by Winslow Homer, 1873
    Boy with AnchorWinslow Homer, 1873Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Third room, north wall

  1. A six-story, narrow building stands alone in an otherwise unoccupied lot under the deck of a high bridge, with a river and cityscape in the background in this horizontal painting. Dozens of people, small in scale, are each painted with a few swipes of black and some with peach-colored faces. They gather at the foot of the building and around a fire to our left, near the lower left corner of the composition. The fire is painted with a dash of orange, a few touches of canary yellow, and a smudge of gray smoke. Several more people stand and sit against the building, which has a streetlamp near its entrance. The back end of the building angles away from us to our right, so we see the narrow, front entrance side to our left. Each of the six floors of the building has two windows with fire escape ladders on the narrow side we can see. Some strokes in red and white on the lower levels of the long, flat side of the building suggest signs or posters. The top story glows a warm sienna brown in sunlight, while the rest of the building and the scene below are in shadow. More people walk along a grayish-violet fence that encloses the lot beyond the building. The ground is painted thickly with slate gray, pale, sage green, and one smear of white to suggest snow. To our right and a short distance from us, a white horse pulls a carriage near the foot of the bridge. The ivory-white, concrete piling rises up and off the right edge of the canvas and supports the deck of the bridge above. Only a sliver of the brick-red underside of the bridge is visible, skimming the top edge of the painting in the upper right corner. Two twiggy, barren trees grow up beyond the muted purple fence, and the landscape beyond is bright in the sunlight. A terracotta-orange building rises along the left edge of the painting, with the area between it and the lot under the bridge filled with thickly painted patches of butter yellow, amethyst purple, and sage green. Beyond that, an ice-blue river flows across the composition. The shore beyond is lined with patches of beige and tan paint that could be buildings. A black tugboat puffs bright white smoke in the river. The sky above is frosty white. The artist signed the work with dark blue in the lower left corner of the painting, “Geo Bellows.”
    The Lone TenementGeorge Bellows, 1909Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. LOCUST BLOSSOMS
    Locust BlossomsSamuel Colman, June 6, 1877Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  3. This painting shows a person seated on a stool or chair, wearing a long, dark-blue robe or gown. They are slightly turned toward the right, looking downward at something they hold in their hands, and their head is covered with a cloth or cap. The background is textured with earthy tones, mostly tan with some patches of yellow ochre and gray.
    The ChaperoneThomas Eakins, c. 1908Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  4. ITALIAN GIRL
    Italian girlElihu Vedder, ca. 1885Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum