This course considers the major figures in the context of the period's great social, political, and economic upheavals, among them the collapse of the old Federalist order, the emergence of a market-oriented industrial economy, the Civil War, the settlement of the West, and the development of new class structures. Contemporary gender and national identity theories especially provide new perspectives to explore and to connect art and epoch. Core artists include Charles Willson Peale, Thomas Cole, Washington Allston, George Caleb Bingham, Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, William Harnett, John Singer Sargent, and J. A. M. Whistler. Requirements include extensive and informed class participation, a seminar paper of no less than twenty pages, and a presentation of that paper's contents at the end of the semester. Enrollment limited.

ALLEN