American Realism

George Caleb Bingham Fur traders on Missouri River, c. 1845.

                                                                                                                                                

George Caleb Bingham, Raftsmen Playing Cards (1847)

• Bingham, George Caleb, 1811–79, American genre painter and politician, b. Augusta co., Va. His family moved (1819) to Missouri, which was the site of most of Bingham's activities. In 1837 he studied for a short time at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. From 1856 to 1859 he traveled in Europe, studying at Düsseldorf for a time. Journeys on the Mississippi and through the South resulted in such paintings as Fur Traders Descending the Missouri (Metropolitan Mus.); Daniel Boone Coming Through the Cumberland Gap (1851; Washington Univ., St. Louis); and Raftsmen Playing Cards (City Art Mus., St. Louis). Bingham entered Missouri politics with his election to the legislature in 1848 (he had been defeated in 1846); he served as state treasurer (1862–65), after a year in the Union army, and became state adjutant general in 1875. Such pictures as The Verdict of the People and Stump Speaking (Mercantile Library Association, St. Louis) reflect his interest in politics. His scenes—vigorous, interesting in composition, humorous, and faithfully representing their time and locale—were very popular in his day, and engravings from them sold widely.

• See catalog and study by E. M. Bloch (2 vol., 1967, repr. 1986).• The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia

University Press. All rights reserved.

James Abbott McNeil Whistler Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Artist's Mother, 1871

James Abbott McNeil Whistler Symphony in White Number 1: The White Girl, 1862

Childe HassamAllies Day, May 1917, 1917

Woman in Black at the Opera (1878)

This image was painted by Mary Cassatt. A wealthy American artist who had adopted the style of the Impressionists and spent time amongst them. The fashionable upper-class woman that Cassatt represents in the box seat at the Paris Opera is her sister. She is shown holding opera glasses up to her eyes, but instead of tilting them down, as she would if she were watching the performance below, her gaze is level. She looks straight across the chamber. She is looking, not at the show, but rather, at another member of the audience. Look closely. And have you noticed that in one of the boxes across the room, a gentleman is gazing at her!

http://smarthistory.org/impressionism-france.html

Mary Cassatt.Child in a Straw Hat.c. 1886

The Gross Clinic , by Thomas Eakins, 1875,

Thomas Eakins,The Agnew Clinic (1889, Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Champion Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull), 1871Thomas Eakins (American, 1844–1916)

Thomas Eakins (American, 1844-1916)The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake, 1873

Winslow Homer (1836–1910)Snap the Whip 1872

Winslow HomerThe Gulf Stream1899Oil on canvas

Winslow Homer, Nassau, Bahamas, 1898/99

The Banjo Lesson, 1893, by Henry Ossawa Tanner.

Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes, 1897John Singer Sargent

Isabella Stewart Gardner (1888), by John Singer Sargent.

John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925). Madame X