The Formation of American Artistic Identity in the Late Colonial and Early National Era
FAIN: FA-56970-13
Susan Wright Rather
University of Texas, Austin (Austin, TX 78712-0100)
During an NEH fellowship year, I will complete the manuscript for "The American School: Artist and Identity in the Late Colonial and Early National Era" (est. 200,000 words). Four polished chapters are in hand but two (possibly three, as the work develops) require more research and writing, while the introductory text is still embryonic and epilogue yet to be started. While my study of artists' status has already resulted in a number of publications, the book does not simply collect that work. Instead, I have been reconfiguring and expanding previous essays, bringing the material together with substantial new scholarship into a cohesive whole of longer narrative arc. Recurring themes across the book include artisanry and professionalism; practice and theory; regional, colonial, and national identities; the democratization of art and portrait painting as a political metaphor; artistic nationalism and naturalism as a presumed American idiom; and the nascent history of American art.
Media Coverage
book review (Review)
Author(s): Wendy Bellion
Publication: caa.reviews
Date: 4/6/2011
URL: http://caareviews.org/reviews/3000#.YbOUlC2ZMkh
book review (Review)
Author(s): Bryan Wolf
Publication: Critical Enquiry
Date: 8/20/2016
URL: https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/bryan_wolf_reviews_the_american_school/
book review (Review)
Author(s): Marie-Stephanie Delamaire
Publication: Panorama
Date: 12/10/2017
Abstract: Panorama is a peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication dedicated to American art and visual culture (broadly defined). The journal is intended to provide a high-caliber international forum for disseminating original research and scholarship and for sustaining a lively engagement with intellectual developments and methodological debates in art history, visual and material cultural studies, and curatorial work. It encourages a broad range of perspectives and approaches within an interdisciplinary framework encompassing both local and global contexts. Panorama welcomes submissions that utilize the insights of both traditional and new historical and interpretive approaches to American art.
URL: https://editions.lib.umn.edu/panorama/article/artists-and-status/
book review (Review)
Author(s): Margaretta Lovell
Publication: Journal of American History
Date: 9/1/2017
URL: https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/104/2/481/4095460?redirectedFrom=fulltext
book review (Review)
Author(s): Loyd Grossman
Publication: Burlington Magazine
Date: 11/16/2021
Abstract: The Burlington Magazine is the world's leading monthly publication devoted to the fine and decorative arts. It publishes concise, well-written articles based on original research, presenting new works, art-historical discoveries and fresh interpretations.
book review (Review)
Author(s): Nancy Siegel
Publication: Journal of the Early Republic
Date: 12/10/2018
URL: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/696298/pdf
book review (Review)
Author(s):
Publication: Choice Reviews
Date: 12/10/2008
Abstract: Choice is a publishing unit of the Association of College and Research Libraries. It includes the magazine Choice as well as other products including the Choice Reviews database. The magazine was established in 1964.
Associated Products
The American School: Artists and Status in the Late Colonial and Early National Era (Book)Title: The American School: Artists and Status in the Late Colonial and Early National Era
Author: Susan Rather
Abstract: What did it mean to be an American artist in the 18th- and early-19th-century transatlantic world? In this first comprehensive art-historical study of the subject, Susan Rather examines the status of artists from different geographical, professional, and material perspectives: portrait painting in Boston and London, the trade of art in Philadelphia and New York, the negotiability and usefulness of colonial American identity in Italy and London, and the shifting representation of artists in and from the former British colonies after the Revolutionary War, when London remained the most important cultural touchstone. The book interweaves nuanced analysis of well-known artists (John Singleton Copley, Benjamin West, and Gilbert Stuart, among others) with accounts of non-elite painters and ephemeral texts and images such as painted signs and advertisements, all well represented in this richly illustrated book. Throughout, Rather questions the validity of the term "American,” which she sees as provisional—the product of an evolving, multifaceted cultural construction.
Year: 2016
Primary URL:
http://www.worldcat.org/title/american-school-artists-and-status-in-the-late-colonial-and-early-national-era/oclc/910504269&referer=brief_resultsAccess Model: Purchase
Publisher: Yale University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780300214611
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes
Prizes
New England Society Book Award: Art
Date: 6/8/2017
Organization: New England Society
Abstract: This fascinating book is the first comprehensive art-historical study of what it meant to be an American artist in the 18th- and early 19th-century transatlantic world. Rather examines the status of artists from different geographical, professional, and material perspectives and delves into topics such as portrait painting in Boston and London; the trade of art in Philadelphia and New York; the negotiability and usefulness of colonial American identity in Italy and London; and the shifting representation of artists in and from the former British colonies after the Revolutionary War, when London remained the most important cultural touchstone. The book interweaves nuanced analysis of well-known artists—John Singleton Copley, Benjamin West, and Gilbert Stuart, among others—with accounts of non-elite painters and ephemeral texts and images such as painted signs and advertisements.
Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Outstanding Scholarship in American Art
Date: 5/10/2018
Organization: Smithsonian American Art Museum
Abstract: A cash award of $3,000 is made to the author of a recent book-length publication that provides new insight into works of art, the artists who made them, or aspects of history and theory that enrich our understanding of America’s artistic heritage.
The Eldredge Prize seeks to recognize originality and thoroughness of research, excellence of writing, clarity of method, and significance for professional or public audiences. It is especially meant to honor those authors who deepen or focus debates in the field, or who broaden the discipline by reaching beyond traditional boundaries.
Funding for the Charles C. Eldredge Prize is provided by the American Art Forum, a patrons’ support organization of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The prize was instituted to honor Charles C. Eldredge, who founded the American Art Forum in 1986 during his tenure as director of the museum.
The American School: Artists and Status in the Late Colonial and Early National Era (book) (Blog Post)Title: The American School: Artists and Status in the Late Colonial and Early National Era (book)
Author: Susan Rather
Abstract: (I already made a separate entry for the book)
Date: 4/6/2016
Primary URL:
http://artbooks.yupnet.org/2016/04/06/cover-story-design-content-and-the-american-school/Blog Title: "Cover Story: Design, Content, and The American School"
Website: Yale@RTbooks