Semester of Graduation

Summer 2025

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Art History

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the stylistic and conceptual qualities of American genre and landscape painting from the antebellum period and how these qualities acted in service to establishing white nationalism before the Civil War. The intricate and calculated system of typing in genre painting presented carefully crafted idealizations of quintessential Americans, defined by their whiteness and maleness. Landscape painters of the early- to mid-nineteenth century endowed their compositions with a sense of wondrous opportunity which justified and upheld westward expansion under Manifest Destiny. At the intersection of genre and landscape practices sits plantation paintings—specifically house portraits—in which the plantation serves as a stand-in for the ideal American man and American economic enterprise. Throughout the various depictions of the physical and social landscape of the country, there is a notable absence of black figures who occupied relegated yet highly visible sectors of antebellum life. I analyze how black Americans are characterized in their few appearances throughout genre painting, highlighting that their general exclusion is an inaccurate representation of society by genre painters who are said to paint scenes of everyday life. Within all of this, I investigate how the meanings of these paintings evolve over time and how this evolution of meaning impacts the conservation of such artwork in the twenty-first century. I ask what the contemporary cultural value of this art is, and I investigate the possibilities of combining art historical and anthropological approaches to the conservation of these works.

Date

5-29-2025

Committee Chair

Darius Spieth

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