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The American Gilded Age

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

67 works · hang 3280 ·

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

Walk this roomRehang this room

First room, north wall

  1. A work made of pastel and black chalk on brown wove paper with fibrous inclusions.
    Corte del ParadisoJames McNeill Whistler, 1880Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. 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
  3. FISHERMEN BEACHING A DORY, CULLERCOATS, ENGLAND
    Fishermen Beaching a Dory, Cullercoats, EnglandWinslow Homer, 1881Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  4. Seventeenth Century Lady, by William Merritt Chase, ca. 1895
    Seventeenth Century LadyWilliam Merritt Chase, ca. 1895Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

First room, south wall

  1. FIGURES
    FiguresRobert Frederick Blum, 1881Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  2. A young, gangly, brown-skinned boy sits on a green chair and leans over the banjo he plays in this loosely painted, vertical composition. His body faces our right in profile, and his head leans to his left and away from us. Light comes from our left to highlight his ear and the side of his chin, but throws his profile into shadow against the lighter background. The boy has short black hair and wears a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, black pants, and black shoes. The floor is loosely painted with streaks of earth brown, taupe, and dark moss green. The wall behind the boy is painted with visible strokes of parchment brown, peachy tan, pearl white, and fog gray. The space to our left of the boy is dark brown, and an outline of a standing person is sketched in the top left corner. A grid is overlaid across the boy’s body and the chair.
    Study for "The Dancing Lesson": The Banjo PlayerThomas Eakins, probably 1877Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. 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
  4. 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

Second room, south wall

  1. The Gulf Stream, by Winslow Homer, 1899; reworked by 1906
    The Gulf StreamWinslow Homer, 1899; reworked by 1906Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. Leaping Trout, by Winslow Homer, 1889
    Leaping TroutWinslow Homer, 1889Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. Artist: Thomas Cowperthwaite Eakins, Sitter: Talcott Williams, Current owner: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
    Talcott WilliamsThomas Eakins, c. 1889Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Second room, north wall

  1. Repose, by John White Alexander, 1895
    ReposeJohn White Alexander, 1895Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. DRAPERY STUDY
    Drapery StudyFrancis Augustus Lathrop, ca. 1895Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  3. Three Girls and River, by Louis M. Eilshemius, 1907
    Three Girls and RiverLouis M. Eilshemius, 1907Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Third room, north wall

  1. Twigs of a magnolia tree with light green, glossy leaves and three cream-white blossoms lie on a sapphire-blue cloth in this horizontal still life painting. Brightly lit from our left, the blossoms and leaves nearly fill the composition, and the cut ends lie on the fabric to our right. The blue fabric cascades from the upper left and across the table or ledge. The three flowers are in various stages of bloom. The tightest bud is to our left, overlapped by a stem and the tender, unfurling leaves of a branch. The blossom next to it, at the center, is starting to open. The petals of the third blossom, to our right, splay open around the flower’s oval-shaped stamen. Light glints off the waxy leaves surrounding the flowers. The tawny-brown underside of one leaf is visible where it turns over, near the cut ends of the branches. Light shimmering on the fabric darkens from bright blue to our right, to deep royal blue in the shadows to the upper left, suggesting the fabric is velvet. The background is streaked with tan and pine green behind the fabric, and becomes nearly black in the shadows of the upper right corner and along the bottom edge. The artist signed the lower right corner, "MJ. Heade."
    Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet ClothMartin Johnson Heade, c. 1890Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. Christ, by Kenyon Cox, 1905
    ChristKenyon Cox, 1905Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art