Thursday, January 21, 2021 – It shines bright in the January sunshine
THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021
The
267th Edition
From Our Archives
OUR WONDERFUL
U.S. CAPITOL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
The Painting Presented
to the Bidens After the Inauguration
- Robert S. Duncanson, Landscape with Rainbow, 1859, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Leonard and Paula Granoff, 1983.95.160
- Robert Seldon Duncanson was America’s best known African American painter in the years surrounding the Civil War. Based in Cincinnati, he was supported by abolitionists who bought his paintings and sponsored his trip to Europe to study from the Old Masters. In this pastoral landscape, a young couple strolls through fertile pastureland, toward a house at the end of a rainbow.The cattle head home toward the nearby cottage, reinforcing the sense that man lives in harmony with nature. Duncanson’s vision of rural America as Arcadia, a landscape akin to paradise, is a characteristic feature of his work, a late hope for peace before the onset of Civil War.
Winslow Homer, The Inaugural Procession at Washington Passing the Gate of the Capitol Grounds, from Harper’s Weekly, March 16, 1861, 1861, wood engraving on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Ray Austrian Collection, Gift of Beatrice L. Austrian, Caryl A. Austrian and James A. Austrian, 1996.63.11
Charles Sheeler, Nation’s Capitol, 1943, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of State, 1971.281
Bertha E. Jaques, Capitol in Winter, n.d., etching, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chicago Society of Etchers, 1935.13.46
Joseph C. Claghorn, The United States Capitol, ca. 1930-1939, drypoint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Constance Claghorn, 1971.93
Unidentified, Family Group before United States Capitol, ca. 1850, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1968.36
Thomas Doughty, Childs and Inman, The Capitol. Washington, D.C., 1832, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1980.67.6
The Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as President, from Harper’s Weekly, March 4, 1861, attributed to Winslow Homer Greetings from D.C. where change comes every four—or sometimes eight—years. It’s an interesting time to be in the nation’s capital. On January 20th, our newest president will be sworn in; his election was a momentous achievement in so many ways. The same can be said for Abraham Lincoln who was sworn in as the nation’s sixteenth president on March 4, 1861. Famed American artist Winslow Homer was in attendance and created this wood engraving on paper for Harper’s magazine. It shows Lincoln delivering his remarks on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, under a specially designed canopy. Dignitaries fill the area behind him, while the well-dressed throngs below share Homer’s perspective. The men wear hats, the women bonnets, while one woman in the foreground carries an parasol, presumably to shade herself from the glare of the sun. Painter and graphic artist Winslow Homer, whose work is well represented at American Art, was known for his illustrations of the Civil War, also published by Harper’s, and his luminous seascape paintings. While you’re at American Art, check out the exhibition, The Honor of Your Company is Requested: President Lincoln’s Inaugural Ball. It gives an inside, behind-the-scenes look into American history and pageantry in the same building where Lincoln’s second inaugural ball was held. Since we’re starting off a new year, I’m going to end this post with Lincoln’s famous words from his second inaugural speech in 1865 as a new year’s wish for 2009: “With malice toward none; with charity for all . . . .”
Samuel F. B. Morse, Study for The House of Representatives, ca. 1821, oil on panel, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through a grant from the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, 1978.166
James F. Minnicks, District of Columbia, from the United States Series, 1949, gouache on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.216
Isidore Laurent Deroy, Augustus Kollner, Washington–Capitol (East View), ca. 1848, color lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of International Business Machines Corporation, 1966.48.60
Emily Burling Waite, White House from South Gardens, 1923, etching, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chicago Society of Etchers, 1935.13.366
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
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WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
The entry of the Brooklyn Public Library
ARLENE BESSEOFF WAS THE ONLY PERSON TO GET IT RIGHT
Letter to the Editor
What a wonderful day. The pall of four years of destructive politics has ended. As I have for every inauguration since John F. Kennedy’s, in 1961, This one was special, very special.
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c)
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
(c)
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