Floor plan

Style galleriesAntebellum America

Antebellum America

Landscape with Haywain, by Worthington Whittredge, 1861
STUDY FOR "SCIENTIFIC GROUP"
The painting features a scene showing men in a boat landing on a shore. The horizon is low, with larger sailing ships seen in the distance on the right, floating on the dark green water. The central boat has around eight men in it, all with tan skin and dark hair, dressed in bright garments in shades of red, blue, and gold. Many of them wear plumed helmets and have jewelry or badges adorning them. The boat is heading towards land on the left, and one man stands at the front of the boat, holding a white flag. The land on the left is green, with tall palm trees and a rocky gray mountain. People with dark skin can be seen in on the land in the distance, some climbing the mountain and others standing beneath trees. The sky is a gradient from pinkish-orange near the horizon to light blue at the top of the painting, with a few faint gray clouds.
Trees along Stream in Fall, by William Trost Richards, 1861
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.
Mrs. Goss (The Woman in Fur), by Caroline L. Ransom, c. 1850s
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 works in this room are listed below.

Works in this room

American art between the young republic and the Civil War.

First room, north wall

  1. Landscape with Haywain, by Worthington Whittredge, 1861
    Landscape with HaywainWorthington Whittredge, 1861Courtesy 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 painting features a scene showing men in a boat landing on a shore. The horizon is low, with larger sailing ships seen in the distance on the right, floating on the dark green water. The central boat has around eight men in it, all with tan skin and dark hair, dressed in bright garments in shades of red, blue, and gold. Many of them wear plumed helmets and have jewelry or badges adorning them. The boat is heading towards land on the left, and one man stands at the front of the boat, holding a white flag. The land on the left is green, with tall palm trees and a rocky gray mountain. People with dark skin can be seen in on the land in the distance, some climbing the mountain and others standing beneath trees. The sky is a gradient from pinkish-orange near the horizon to light blue at the top of the painting, with a few faint gray clouds.
    The Landing of ColumbusEdward Hicks, c. 1837Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  4. Trees along Stream in Fall, by William Trost Richards, 1861
    Trees along Stream in FallWilliam Trost Richards, 1861Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

First room, south wall

  1. 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
  2. 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
  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

Second room, south wall

  1. 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
  2. THE ARTIST'S WIFE SOPHIE
    The Artist's Wife SophieDaniel Huntington, 1853Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  3. The Power of Music, by William Sidney Mount, 1847
    The Power of MusicWilliam Sidney Mount, 1847Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  4. Major Thomas Biddle, by Thomas Wilcocks Sully, 1832
    Major Thomas BiddleThomas Wilcocks Sully, 1832Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Second room, north wall

  1. EAGLE LAKE, MT. DESERT
    Eagle Lake, Mt. DesertDaniel Huntington, August 23, 1856Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  2. Colonel William Leete Stone, by William Page, 1839
    Colonel William Leete StoneWilliam Page, 1839Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. SOLDIER WITH SWORD AND PIPE
    Soldier with Sword and PipeWinslow Homer, 1862Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Third room, north wall

  1. STUDY OF FOLIAGE
    Study of foliageWilliam Trost Richards, October 25, 1862Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  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