American Art and Literary Movements

1776 2000

Puritan Literature

1472-1750Consists mostly of:

DiariesJournalsHistoriesSermons

Personal poems

• Most writers of the period influenced by Puritan ideals

• Most works are utilitarian or very religious

• Jonathan Edwards, Anne Bradstreet

1776 2000

Puritan

Enlightenment

1750-1800Consists mostly of:Political documents

PamphletsSpeeches

Letters

• Period characterized by science and logic

• Some use of Bible; mostly further explanation of its teaching

• Benjamin Franklin typifies this period

1776 2000

Enlightenment

Romanticism

1800-1840Literary Movement:

PoetryNovels

Short Stories

• Reaction against previous practical forms of literature

• Entertaining• Emphasized nature,

romance, imagination, individuality

• Hawthorne, Melville, Dickinson, Poe plus Transcendentalists

1776 2000

Romanticism1800-1840 (Art & Literature)

Transcendentalists began as Romantics and are

often considered part of both movements

Romanticism

Artistic Movement:1800-1850~Emphasized:LandscapesFrontier Life

American Themes & Heroes

Nature

Subgroup of American Romantics—

The Hudson River School The first American art

movement, focused mostly on landscapes of

the Hudson Valley & upstate New York.

Leader: Thomas Cole

1776 2000

Romanticism1800-1850

Romanticism

American RomanticPainters

(non HRS):

John Singleton CopleyEmanuel Leutze

Stuart GilbertJohn James Audubon

Stanley Hawk byJohn James Audubon

1776 2000

Romanticism1800-1850

Romanticism

Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze

1776 2000

Romanticism1800-1850

Romanticism

Buffalo Bill’s Back-Fat, Head Chief, Blood TribeGeorge Catlin (1832)

1776 2000

Romanticism1800-1850

Romanticism

View of the Catskills, Early AutumnThomas Cole

1776 2000

Romanticism1800-1850

(Hudson River School)

Romanticism

Kindred SpiritsAsher Durand (1849)

1776 2000

Romanticism1800-1850

(Hudson River School)

Romanticism

Course of Empire (Series) by Thomas Cole

1776 2000

Romanticism1800-1850

(Hudson River School)

Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism

1840-1855Main Transcendalists:Ralph Waldo EmersonHenry David Thoreau

Bronson AlcottWalt Whitman

• Held belief that man is basically good

• Our intuition and conscience “transcend” our experience, which makes them better guides in life than reason and logic

• God present in each person and in nature

1776 2000

Brook Farm was an utopian, communal farm begun by

adherents of Transcendentalism.

Realism1865-1915

RealismArt and Literary

Movements1865-1915

• Stressed the actual, rather than the imaginary

• Authors: Mark Twain, Stephen Crane (also in Naturalist era)

• Artists included Edward Hopper and members of the Ashcan School of Art

1776 2000

Realism1865-1915

RealismAshcan School of Art

Group of New York ArtistsDepicted urban life, sometimes gritty, and

everyday scenes of ordinary life

(Shown here: Descending from the Bus by William

Glackens)

1776 2000

Realism1865-1915

RealismAshcan School of Art

Group of New York ArtistsDepicted urban life, sometimes gritty, and

everyday scenes of ordinary life

(Shown here: Cliff Dwellers by George

Bellows -1908)

1776 2000

Realism1865-1915

Realism

Edward HopperBest known realist

Not always included with Ashcan School

1776 2000

Night Hawks by Edward Hopper

Naturalism1880-1940

Naturalism1880-1940

Stephen Crane (Red Badge of Courage)

Jack London(Call of the Wild)Theodore Dreiser

(Sister Carrie)

• Saw man as a hapless victim of unchangeable natural laws

1776 2000

A man said to the universe: "Sir, I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane (1894)

Modernism1914-1945

Modernism1914-1945

William FaulknerJohn Steinbeck

F. Scott FitzgeraldErnest Hemingway

Robert FrostEugene O’Neilland many more

• Disillusionment of modern life

• Raised all the great questions of life in their literary works

• Considered by many as our greatest American writers

1776 2000

Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance1920s Black Movement

Included:Novelists

PoetsPlaywrightsIntellectuals

ArtistsMusicians

• Centered in the Harlem area of New York City

• Received support from white patrons

• Very productive artistic period in all areas of the arts

• Ended abruptly with the onset of the Great Depression

1776 2000

Famous Namesof the Harlem Renaissance

Writers:Langston Hughes

Zora Neale HurstonVisual artist:

Jacob Lawrence Musicians:

Duke Ellington Ella Fitzgerald

Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance1776 2000

Migration of the Negro by Jacob Lawrence

Other Important Authors• Phyllis Wheatley—Colonial poet, America’s

first African-American poet• Horatio Alger—Wrote the rags-to-riches

bestsellers of the mid-1800s• Frank L. Baum—Wrote The Wizard of Oz, the

allegory about free silver• Jack Kerouac—Beat Generation author of On

the Road (1957)

1776 2000

Phyllis Wheatley

Horatio Alger Frank L. Baum Jack Kerouac