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| author | Thomas H Price |
| title | The Late Paintings of Worthington Whittredge: American Barbizon and the New Internationalism |
| abstract | The year of the American Centennial and American Centennial Exhibition, 1876, not only marked the first century of the United States
existence, but also a new chapter in American history. Coming at the heels of the Civil War and Reconstruction, this heavily symbolic year also bore witness to
substantial changes in American life and how the nation envisioned itself through its art. In the interstice between the end of the Hudson River School, which
defined America's visual identity throughout the 1850s and 1860s, and the American Barbizon movement, the New York based American artist Worthington Whittredge
struggled to redefine his artistic style and identity. This paper examines his stylistic changes between the years 1876 and 1886, which mark the majority of his
interaction with the American Barbizon School and his efforts to re-envision the American landscape. Through an analysis of his works from this period, those of
several of his contemporaries, and concurrent articles from art journals, I seek to contextualize his progressive change within the trends of the New York art
world. Whittredge's unique approach to American Barbizon painting, the palimpsest of the Hudson River School style and its program of depicting American identity
through nature still evident in his work, is examined by focusing on the technical changes in his paintings. Furthermore, his atypical approach is studied in
connection with his departure from decrying the contemporary advancement of urbanization and industrialization, instead providing a more nuanced and complex
understanding of their relation to rural American life. Finally, his ability to see America as an American Barbizon artist is evaluated.
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| school | The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University |
| degree | B.A. (2015) |
| advisor | Kimberly Rhodes |
| committee | Marguerite Keane
Lillie Edwards
Carol Ueland |
| full text | THPrice.pdf |
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