American Art and Architecture

I

Introduction

American Art and Architecture, the European tradition of architecture, painting, sculpture, and related arts as developed in North America (subsequently in the United States) by early colonists and their successors, from the 17th century to the present day.

In its early days, American art and architecture was heavily influenced by styles already highly developed in Western Europe. In the course of the 19th century, however, the new nation created distinctively American variations on European models. Finally, by the end of the 19th century in architecture, and by the middle of the 20th century in painting and sculpture, American masters and movements had become world leaders. This growing artistic authority reflected the increasing prosperity and political dominance of the United States. Because of the great size of the country, regional variations developed within this mainstream of artistic growth. Areas that had been settled by different European nations reflected their early colonial heritage in artistic forms, particularly in architecture. Similarly, climatic variations across the country helped to shape distinctive regional architectural traditions. In addition, differences persisted between the art produced in cities and that produced in rural areas: rural artists, trained or untrained, were more isolated from current trends and competitive pressures and developed highly individual modes of expression. This type of American art sometimes falls within the tradition of folk art or naive art. Although this article is concerned essentially with architecture, painting, and sculpture, which are traditionally considered the major visual arts, it must be remembered that—especially during colonial times—the decorative arts have played a major role in American culture. Silver in the 17th century and furniture in the 18th century, for example, reached particularly high levels.

II

The Colonial Era

The early colonists took with them their varied artistic traditions, albeit adapted to the dangers and harsh conditions of a vast wilderness. Spanish influences prevailed in the west, while British styles, with an admixture of Dutch and French, predominated in the east.

A

Colonial Architecture

The earliest surviving colonial buildings were erected by Spanish settlers in the early 17th century in the south-west of the country, in what is now the state of New Mexico. They are built predominantly of adobe (sun-dried mud), which the local Native Americans had already been using for centuries. The governor's palace at Santa Fe (begun 1610) is a good example. Other building types of the period included churches, missions, and fortresses. All these buildings tend to be in a very plain, rugged style, virtually devoid of ornament.

In the areas colonized by the British, wood was initially the predominant material. Houses were built in a range of sizes, although only more modest dwellings have survived. The Parson Capen House (1683), in Topsfield, Massachusetts, is typical of the two-storey New England house built of overlapping weatherboards. Its gables, overhangs, and lack of symmetry lend it a late-medieval flavour. In Virginia and Maryland, brick construction was preferred for the typically storey-and-a-half homes, with chimneys at both ends and a more nearly symmetrical façade, as in the Thomas Rolfe House (1652), in Surrey County, Virginia. The New England colonists were predominantly Puritans and the buildings they used for their religious meetings were appropriately plain, externally looking very like houses.

Dutch influence on architecture was mainly in the region of New York (which was known as New Amsterdam before it was captured by the British in 1664). The manor house, Fort Crailo (1642), in Rensselaer, New York State, is a good example.

B

17th-Century Painting and Sculpture

Like colonial architecture, 17th-century colonial painting reflects British styles of a century earlier, which had been perpetuated in the rural areas from which the colonists came. The earliest surviving paintings, all portraits and all by artists whose names are unknown, were made in New England and date from the 1660s, a long generation after the founding of the colony. The most notable are the portraits of John Freake and Mrs Elizabeth Freake and Baby Mary (c. 1674, Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts). The relatively flat figures are arranged decoratively, with attention to firm line and areas of patterning, the sitters stiffly posed in their finery, as in portraits of the Elizabethan age in England. Documentary evidence indicates that portraiture began at about the same time in the Hudson Valley area in the Catskill Mountains area of New York State. Although portraiture was the only kind of art for which there was much demand, religious paintings and church decoration were created in the American Southwest, the figure carving being at the level of sophisticated folk sculpture.