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The American Gilded Age

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

67 works · hang 1471 ·

The rooms are imagined; every work on their walls is real.

Walk this roomRehang this room

First room, north wall

  1. Pale watercolor drawing of young dancer in long sheer dress.
    Green and Blue: The DancerJames McNeill Whistler, c. 1893Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Claire Campbell, by Édouard Manet, 1876
    Claire CampbellÉdouard Manet, 1876Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. The painting depicts a rural landscape at sunset or sunrise. The horizon is slightly above the center, showing distant pale-pink and purple mountains against the sky. Closest to us is an area with dark green bushes and vegetation, leading to a lighter green field surrounded by green-and-brown trees. The palette is warm and earthy, with greens and browns in the bottom transitioning to purples and pinks in the distance. The sky is a pale-yellow color that fades into light blue towards the top left corner, and faint yellow and gray clouds drift across it.
    Peaceful ValleyAlexander Helwig Wyant, c. 1872Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  4. A woman with smooth, pale skin and wearing a hat, long dress, and gloves, stands holding a bunch of pumpkin-orange leaves against a background of trees painted with touches of rust orange and pine green in this vertical painting. The woman tips her head back slightly to look at us with dark eyes under arched eyebrows. Her cheeks are flushed and her coral-pink lips closed. Her round black hat perches on the back of her head and she has an inky black, long-sleeved, hip-length jacket with bronze trim at the shoulders, cuffs, and down the front. A gauzy bow is tied at her neck. Her left elbow, on our right, is bent and she holds up her tan-colored, ruffled skirt with a white-gloved hand. The raised skirt exposes sky-blue lining and white, ruffled flounces at her feet. Her right arm, on our left, hangs at her side and holds the handle of a basket. Deep marigold-orange leaves cascade out of the basket. One black shoe peeks out from under her long skirt. She stands on a hill carpeted with crimson-red, tawny-brown, golden yellow, and forest-green leaves. The space behind her is filled with touches and dabs of red, orange, brown, black, and tan.
    AutumnWinslow Homer, 1877Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

First room, south wall

  1. Sand Dunes, Harlech, North Wales, by George Elbert Burr, 1899
    Sand Dunes, Harlech, North WalesGeorge Elbert Burr, 1899Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  2. VIGNETTE: MAN CROUCHING ON A SCAFFOLDING
    Vignette: Man Crouching on a ScaffoldingWalter Appleton Clark, 1899Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  3. THE OLD HOPKINSON HOUSE, BORDENTOWN, NJ
    The Old Hopkinson House, Bordentown, NJFrancis Hopkinson Smith, ca. 1880Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  4. Leaping Trout, by Winslow Homer, 1889
    Leaping TroutWinslow Homer, 1889Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Second room, south wall

  1. STUDY FOR "DIANA AND HER ATTENDANTS AMONG THE CONSTELLATIONS"
    Study for "Diana and Her Attendants among the Constellations"Francis Augustus Lathrop, ca. 1894Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  2. From under an elevated train track, we look at a cluster of people hammering and working on the far side of a wooden fence, all against a silvery-blue building that fills most of the background in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted mostly in tones of hazy and saturated blues, so many of the details are indistinct. About a quarter of the way in from the right edge of the composition, a thin iron column holds up the train platform. The column nearly spans the height of the painting, and the track it supports runs across the top edge of the canvas. At the foot of the column, along the bottom edge, are two parallel tracks embedded in an area otherwise painted with short, diagonal strokes in topaz blue, olive green, and straw yellow. Just beyond the tracks, the split-rail wooden fence runs across most of the painting, though there is an opening at the left edge of the canvas. A man sits with his back to us on the railing to our right of center. He wears a dark cap, a lapis-blue shirt, and navy-blue pants. Several men work on or near a mound-shaped form, perhaps a piece of machinery, just beyond the fence, near the center of the painting. One man holds a hammer high overhead while another reaches down or strikes the mound with his feet planted wide. More people work together to our left, and a man to our right stands near a crane. The people and these areas are painted with broad strokes and touches of cobalt blue, charcoal gray, khaki brown, and a few swipes of shell pink and bright white. A puff of white smoke billows up behind the central group, before the land drops precipitously away. The chasm is painted with shimmering tones of aquamarine and cerulean blue. A sky-blue, rectangular building perches at the far edge. A few windows are outlined in royal blue to our left but the rest of the building is loosely painted with long, vertical strokes so no architectural details can be made out. Behind this structure are more city buildings, suggested with strokes of muted rust red, parchment and bright white, and cobalt blue. The ice-blue sky fills the band between the top of the buildings and the train track running overhead. The artist signed his name near the lower left corner, “BELLOWS.”
    Blue MorningGeorge Bellows, 1909Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. Pointe de Cabellou, Brittany, by William L. Picknell, 1881
    Pointe de Cabellou, BrittanyWilliam L. Picknell, 1881Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Second room, north wall

  1. 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
  2. Diving Cormorant, by Otto H. Bacher, 1900
    Diving CormorantOtto H. Bacher, 1900Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Third room, north wall

  1. Portrait of Dora Wheeler, by William Merritt Chase, 1882–83
    Portrait of Dora WheelerWilliam Merritt Chase, 1882–83Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  2. 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
  3. A Rose, by Thomas Anshutz, 1907
    A RoseThomas Anshutz, 1907Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art