Storytelling in American Art

This class will explore narrative art in America from the colonial era to the twentieth century. In paintings and illustrations, American artists depicted people engaged in the tasks, pleasures, and challenges of everyday life.

Throughout the class, we will examine shifting sociocultural themes such as the rise of industrialization, urbanization, and immigration; changing gender roles; the shifting location and meaning of the frontier; and the destabilizing effects of war and modernity.

The class will feature the work of artists such as John Singleton Copley, Charles Willson Peale, William Sidney Mount, George Caleb Bingham, Lily Martin Spencer, Eastman Johnson, Richard Caton Woodville, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Thomas Hovenden, John Singer Sargent, Howard Pyle, Maxfield Parrish, Mary Cassatt, Jessie Wilcox Smith, N.C. Wyeth, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Violet Oakley, John Sloan, Robert Henri, George Luks, Reginald Marsh, George Bellows, Andrew Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, and others.

Allison Slaby will lecture during each class and Julia Tanner will facilitate discussion.

Class meets weekly on Thursday afternoons. Registration covers all four sessions.

Register Here