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Antebellum America

American art between the young republic and the Civil War.

33 works · hang 3361 ·

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

Walk this roomRehang this room

First room, north wall

  1. In this painting, three women are depicted standing and sitting closely together. The women have fair complexions and dark hair in ringlets, and they are smiling slightly. The woman on the left appears to be standing, and her body is turned to the right while her head is turned over her shoulder to face us. She wears a light blue dress with a brown shawl, and she is holding the edge of a red book that rests on a small table in the bottom right corner. The woman in the middle also appears to be standing, and she is wearing a golden-yellow off-the-shoulder garment. One of her hands is on the shoulder of the woman on the left. The woman on the right is seated at the small table, and she wears a pale pink off-the-shoulder dress. She looks directly out at us. The small table is covered in a golden cloth, and on the right is a vase of colorful flowers. The wall behind the woman is a blend of brown, tan, and pale blue tones.
    The Coleman SistersThomas Sully, 1844Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. This painting shows a maritime landscape with an expansive view of the ocean and sky. The horizon is positioned in the lower third of the composition, meeting a clear sky with soft, diffused clouds. Two ships appear to be engaged in a conflict on the green, wave-filled water. One large sailing ship with fully extended sails is near the bottom right corner of the painting. It has two tall masts and multiple white sails, and it flies the flag of the U.S.A in several places. The body of this ship is gray with a wide white stripe, and cannons stick out of small holes across the ship. Small people climb on ropes up into the sails, which are covered in small white and gray dots, perhaps indicating holes. Another ship is visible in the distance on the left side of the painting, and its cannons appear to be firing, with bursts of yellow flame and smoke drifting across the water. This ship flies several flags in shades of red, blue, and white. In the background, the faint gray silhouettes of other ships can be seen across the water. The ocean is depicted with smooth brushstrokes in shades of green and white, and the wide sky is a gradient, with light blue at the top and pale yellow towards the horizon. Faint white clouds drift in the top left corner of the painting.
    The United States Frigate "President" Engaging the British Squadron, 1815Fitz Henry Lane, 1850Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. Major Thomas Biddle, by Thomas Wilcocks Sully, 1832
    Major Thomas BiddleThomas Wilcocks Sully, 1832Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

First room, south wall

  1. This painting shows a pastoral setting with a large white-and-gray house on a hill to the left. Distant people stand in front of the house, along with a horse-drawn wagon. In the bottom right corner, two people sit in the grass under a tree, one dressed in red holding a tall crook and the other wearing a black garment and a yellow hat and petting a large brown-and-white dog. There is a basket on the ground between them, and next to them is a large herd of cows and sheep, all resting on the grass. The landscape includes trees with green leaves and yellow hills in the distance. The sky above is in pastel shades of pink and blue, with fluffy clouds. In the bottom left, a patch of yellow ground has several lines of text written over it.
    The Grave of William PennEdward Hicks, c. 1847/1848Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. STUDY OF FOLIAGE
    Study of foliageWilliam Trost Richards, October 25, 1862Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  3. The image is a portrait painting showing a man's upper body. He is positioned slightly turned to his right, with his head facing the viewer. The man has fair skin, defined cheekbones, and small, bright eyes. His hair is short, neatly combed, and grey or white. He is wearing a dark coat over a white shirt with a high collar, partially visible. The background is a muted, dark color, providing a simple setting that emphasizes the subject. There are no visible jewelry or objects in the image.
    Aaron BaldwinFrancis Alexander, c. 1835Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  4. Across a short stretch of sand in front of us, waves of bottle-green water break over two boulders on the shoreline, with sailboats in the water beyond, in this wide, horizontal painting. One boulder is at the left edge of the painting; the other is a short distance away, about a quarter of the way across. The water cascades down between those large rocks. Across the rest of the beach, the waves flare up to break toward us in white, foamy surf. The land curves back into view on both sides of the canvas with muted, sage-green hills and, to our left, dark green trees on more craggy boulders. A more distant finger of land to our left stretches nearly halfway across the horizon, which comes about halfway up the composition. Minuscule in scale there, smoke pours out of a chimney, which is surrounded by pale yellow buildings. A mound emerges from the horizon to our right of center. About ten sailboats float on the water. The closest one to us is near the center of the painting, and the tiny forms of people aboard can just barely be made out. The other boats become smaller as they move back to the horizon, and some are only a touch of white or gray on the canvas. White and pale lavender-purple clouds sweep up from the horizon into the sky, which glows butter yellow along the left edge. The sky cools to mint green in the upper right corner. Several white or brown birds fly across the sky or low over the water. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “M. J. Heade 1864.”
    Rio de Janeiro BayMartin Johnson Heade, 1864Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Second room, south wall

  1. A young woman with pale, peachy skin, wearing a long, flowing white dress, stands in front of a white curtain in this vertical portrait painting. Her auburn-red hair cascades down over and behind her shoulders. She looks to our left with green eyes, and her pink, full lips are closed. Her dress has puffed shoulders above a white-on-white striped pattern on the long sleeves. She stands on an animal pelt; it is not clear whether it is a wolf or a bear. The pelt spans the width of the painting and overlaps a blue patterned carpet. The animal’s mouth gapes to show sharp teeth. Its glassy eyes are wide open, and it seems to look at us. The edges of the animal skin are red. The woman holds a white lily by her side in her left hand, while yellow and purple flowers lie scattered on the pelt.
    Symphony in White, No. 1: The White GirlJames McNeill Whistler, 1861-1863, 1872Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. The image features two young children standing side by side. The child on the left extends one arm sideways and has the other arm lowered, while the child on the right has both arms relaxed by their sides, one holding a string. Both children have round faces with light complexions; the child on the left has dark brown hair styled in waves down to the shoulders, while the child on the right has light brown hair. The child on the left is dressed in a blue dress with a loosely gathered waist and short sleeves, white stockings, white shoes, and a red beaded necklace. The child on the right wears a green dress with similar design features, white stockings, and black shoes. Near their feet are a toy doll in a red cradle and a small toy house. In the background, there is a plain dark wall, a deep red drapery, a carpet with elaborate patterns, and a small wooden table with a box on top.
    Mary and Francis WilcoxJoseph Whiting Stock, 1845Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. This painting shows a winter landscape with snowy, rural terrain. It includes a large barn, a farmhouse, and some bare trees covered in snow. Some brown cows are fenced in by the barn on the left, and a person walking along a snowy path brings them a bundle of golden hay. The sky is overcast, with dark gray clouds, and the color palette of the painting consists of earth tones with variations of grey and brown among the white snow.
    Winter in the CountryGeorge Henry Durrie, c. 1859Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Second room, north wall

  1. Mrs. Goss (The Woman in Fur), by Caroline L. Ransom, c. 1850s
    Mrs. Goss (The Woman in Fur)Caroline L. Ransom, c. 1850sCourtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  2. The Power of Music, by William Sidney Mount, 1847
    The Power of MusicWilliam Sidney Mount, 1847Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. We look across and down into a valley with a person sitting near a tall tree and a train puffing smoke beyond, all enclosed by a band of mountains in the distance in this horizontal landscape painting. Closest to us, several broken, jagged tree stumps are spaced across the painting’s width. A little distance away and to our left, the person wears a yellow, broad-brimmed hat, red vest, and gray pants. He reclines propped on his left elbow near a walking path beside a tall, slender tree with golden leaves. The green meadow stretching in front of him is dotted with tree stumps cut close to the ground. Beyond the meadow, puffs of white smoke trail behind a long steam locomotive that crosses a bridge spanning a tree-filled ravine, headed to our left. The ravine creates a diagonal line across the canvas, moving subtly away from us to our left. The train has climbed out of the valley, away from a cluster of brick-red buildings. The most prominent structure is a train roundhouse, a large building with a high, domed roof to the right of the tracks. Smoke rises from chimneys on long, warehouse-like buildings, and a steeple and smaller structures suggest a church and homes to our left. Hazy in the distance, a row of mountains lines the horizon, which comes about halfway up the composition. The sky above deepens from pale, shell pink over the mountains to watery, pale blue above. The artist signed the work in tiny letters in the lower left corner: “G. Inness.”
    The Lackawanna ValleyGeorge Inness, c. 1856Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Third room, north wall

  1. Landscape, by Jasper F. Cropsey, before 1918
    LandscapeJasper F. Cropsey, before 1918Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  2. STUDY FOR "SCIENTIFIC GROUP"
    Study for "Scientific Group"Daniel Huntington, 1858Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  3. The image shows a woman portrait from the waist up. She is seated upright, holding a book in her left hand. She has blue eyes, dark brown hair styled with rolls and a braided crown, and wears elegant 19th-century clothing with a lace collar, a blue-gray garment, and gold earrings. The background is plain, and she is seated on a wooden chair.
    Woman Holding a BookErastus Salisbury Field, c. 1835Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington