Rachel
With expansion and exploration allowing the frontier to increase, the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828, a Westerner and a Democrat, facilitated a huge interest in new and unknown territory. As the view of the land shifted from a frightening and perilous region to an enticing and conquerable adventure, the art of the West transformed into what is now called genre paintings. In earlier landscapes the figures were small and overpowered by the nature around them but now they became the subjects. Often depictions of everyday life, genre paintings dealt with the issues of democracy and citizenship, but put them into a context in which even the simplest of men could interpret.
The most produced images in genre paintings were those of the Westerner and the yeomen farmer. Even though the farmer “was seen as the fundamental productive force of the new nation, … [they] were often portrayed as lower-class, ignorant, and concerned only with individual gain rather than the betterment of the community at large” (Pohl). Ironically, the United States celebrated its rural origins but mocked actual farmers.
William Sidney Mount conducted these mixed emotions into paintings of the nation’s rural life. His first piece to incorporate country life, Bargaining for a Horse, focuses on two men, separated drastically by age, in the middle of a business transaction. The straw hat on the older man identifies him as the farmer, and the top hat suggests that man belongs to the city—“though Mount’s original title, Farmers Bargaining, identifies both as farmers” (Pohl). Both men appear to be whittling during the transaction, which conveys “certain nonchalance and goodwill to the scene” (Pohl) as if to indicate that the price of horse is an easy-going conversation. Contrasting the friendliness out front, the nearly abandoned shed behind the figures implies a lack of productivity. Romantic traits appear in the softness of the lighting and in the general depiction of the scene, but realism begins to rear its head especially with the lifelike detail of the horse and the nature around the figures.
Works Cited
Mount, William Sidney. Bargaining for a Horse. 1835. Oil on canvas. The New York Historical Society, New York City.
Pohl, Frances K. Framing America: A Social History of American Art. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson, 2002.
With expansion and exploration allowing the frontier to increase, the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828, a Westerner and a Democrat, facilitated a huge interest in new and unknown territory. As the view of the land shifted from a frightening and perilous region to an enticing and conquerable adventure, the art of the West transformed into what is now called genre paintings. In earlier landscapes the figures were small and overpowered by the nature around them but now they became the subjects. Often depictions of everyday life, genre paintings dealt with the issues of democracy and citizenship, but put them into a context in which even the simplest of men could interpret.
The most produced images in genre paintings were those of the Westerner and the yeomen farmer. Even though the farmer “was seen as the fundamental productive force of the new nation, … [they] were often portrayed as lower-class, ignorant, and concerned only with individual gain rather than the betterment of the community at large” (Pohl). Ironically, the United States celebrated its rural origins but mocked actual farmers.
William Sidney Mount conducted these mixed emotions into paintings of the nation’s rural life. His first piece to incorporate country life, Bargaining for a Horse, focuses on two men, separated drastically by age, in the middle of a business transaction. The straw hat on the older man identifies him as the farmer, and the top hat suggests that man belongs to the city—“though Mount’s original title, Farmers Bargaining, identifies both as farmers” (Pohl). Both men appear to be whittling during the transaction, which conveys “certain nonchalance and goodwill to the scene” (Pohl) as if to indicate that the price of horse is an easy-going conversation. Contrasting the friendliness out front, the nearly abandoned shed behind the figures implies a lack of productivity. Romantic traits appear in the softness of the lighting and in the general depiction of the scene, but realism begins to rear its head especially with the lifelike detail of the horse and the nature around the figures.
Works Cited
Mount, William Sidney. Bargaining for a Horse. 1835. Oil on canvas. The New York Historical Society, New York City.
Pohl, Frances K. Framing America: A Social History of American Art. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson, 2002.