ARTH 260 : Section : Week 4

ARTH 260 * Introduction to Art History * Professor Sarah Benson * Spring 2005

WEEK 4

Quiz
On week 3 images

Discussion topic:
Empire, individuality, and the representation of the American West

Assignment:
Complete the readings and prepare answers for the following questions in your journal.

1) Look for passages in POHL's "Old World, New World" that define the American frontier or the American West. Some have claimed that the frontier experience left a permanent mark on the American national character; how so?
2) What are the various forms of spectacle in which Native Americans were represented and displayed for Euro-Americans?
3) What were the functions and messages of the works below? How do they represent the status of individuals and the "course of empire"?

	America from The Four Continents 1804 Engraving 34.6 x 24.6 cm.		John VANDERLYN (1775-1852) The Death of Jane McCrea Oil on canvas 82.5 x 67.3 cm Hartford, CT: Wadsworth Atheneum
	George CATLIN (1796-1872) The Last Race, Part of Okipa Ceremony (Mandan) 1832 Oil on canvas 58.8 x 71.3 cm. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum		COHOE Fort Marion Prisonsers Dancing for Tourists 1875-77 Graphite and colored pencil on paper Private collection
	Emmanuel LEUTZE (1816-68) study for Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way (Westward Ho!) 1861 84.5 x 110.2 cm. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum		George Caleb BINGHAM (1811-79) Fur Traders Descending the Missouri c. 1845 Oil on canvas. 73.7 x 92.7 cm. New York: Metropolitan Museum
	George CATLIN (1796-1872) The Author Painting a Chief at the Base of the Rocky Mountains , frontispiece from Letters and Notes... 1841 Engraving 24 x 15 cm		George CATLIN (1796-1872) Buffalo Bull's Back Fat, Head Chief, Blood Tribe 1832 Oil on canvas 73.7 x 60.9 cm. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum

Readings:
* STOKSTAD, AH , "Naturalistic, Romantic, and Neoclassical American Art," "Landscape and Genre Painting," pp. 958-962
* POHL, "Old World, New World: The Encounter of Cultures on the American Frontier"