Art

Panorama of the Army of the Cumberland

The National Museum of American History is not an art museum. But works of art fill its collections and testify to the vital place of art in everyday American life. The ceramics collections hold hundreds of examples of American and European art glass and pottery. Fashion sketches, illustrations, and prints are part of the costume collections. Donations from ethnic and cultural communities include many homemade religious ornaments, paintings, and figures. The Harry T Peters "America on Stone" collection alone comprises some 1,700 color prints of scenes from the 1800s. The National Quilt Collection is art on fabric. And the tools of artists and artisans are part of the Museum's collections, too, in the form of printing plates, woodblock tools, photographic equipment, and potters' stamps, kilns, and wheels.

Topic: Art

North Sea Whale Fishery.

Color print of a whaling scene; two large whalers are anchored amid floating ice. Men are attacking whales from smaller boats and ice. Seals?, walrus, narwhal, are on the ice.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Color print of a whaling scene; two large whalers are anchored amid floating ice. Men are attacking whales from smaller boats and ice. Seals?, walrus, narwhal, are on the ice.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
maker
Baillie, James S.
Clay, Edward Williams
ID Number
DL.60.3254
catalog number
60.3254

Abandonment of the Whalers in the Arctic Ocean Sept 1871. Plate 3.

Black and white print of whaling ships; seventeen whaling vessels are on the edge of an ice field. All the ships names are listed below the image and above the title.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print of whaling ships; seventeen whaling vessels are on the edge of an ice field. All the ships names are listed below the image and above the title.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1872
maker
Bufford, John Henry
Newell, J.P.
original artist
Russell, Benjamin
ID Number
DL.60.3258
catalog number
60.3258

Philadelphia in the Olden Time.

Color print of a large panoramic view of Philadelphia. The New Jersey shore is in the foreground. A key identifies aspects of the view. Three small vignettes, below the main image above the title, are of the State House, Old Courthouse and Friends Meeting House, and the prison.
Description (Brief)
Color print of a large panoramic view of Philadelphia. The New Jersey shore is in the foreground. A key identifies aspects of the view. Three small vignettes, below the main image above the title, are of the State House, Old Courthouse and Friends Meeting House, and the prison.
Date made
1875
maker
Wade, F. J.
ID Number
DL.60.3752
catalog number
60.3752

Terrible Conflagration and Destruction of the Steam-boat "New Jersey,"

Color print of the steamship "New Jersey" in flames. Passengers are jumping off the ship and many are already in the water. The names of all on board are listed below the image in groupings: the dead {31}, the missing {30}, the saved {46}.
Description (Brief)
Color print of the steamship "New Jersey" in flames. Passengers are jumping off the ship and many are already in the water. The names of all on board are listed below the image in groupings: the dead {31}, the missing {30}, the saved {46}.
Date made
1856
maker
Pharazyn, A.
ID Number
DL.60.3301
catalog number
60.3301

Daniel Griffith

Black and white print; oval bust portrait of a man (Daniel Griffith,1803-1878, a pioneer and founder of Springport Township, Michigan)Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print; oval bust portrait of a man (Daniel Griffith,1803-1878, a pioneer and founder of Springport Township, Michigan)
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
depicted
Griffith, Daniel
maker
unknown
ID Number
DL.60.3137
catalog number
60.3137
accession number
228146

Cigar Store Indian

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870-1900
ID Number
CL.65.0997
catalog number
65.0997
accession number
256396

Indian Shop Figure

Made of painted wood. Very little trace of original paint. Small standing figure holding a box of cigars, right hand pointing to label. Large curving feathered headdres, simple tunic with a curled collar carved in a baroque style. Banded sleves and fringed trousers.
Description (Brief)
Made of painted wood. Very little trace of original paint. Small standing figure holding a box of cigars, right hand pointing to label. Large curving feathered headdres, simple tunic with a curled collar carved in a baroque style. Banded sleves and fringed trousers. Legs cut into the log support.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
mid 19th century
ID Number
CL.65.1003
accession number
261195
catalog number
65.1003
collector/donor number
T-42

drawing

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.06566.07
catalog number
06566.07
accession number
19048

drawing

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.06566.02
catalog number
06566.02
accession number
19048

drawing

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.06566.08
catalog number
06566.08
accession number
19048

Cigar Store Indian

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
CL.65.0999
catalog number
65.0999
accession number
256396

Cigar Store Indian

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
CL.65.0983
accession number
256396
catalog number
65.0983

Indian Figure

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
CL.65.1146
catalog number
65.1146
accession number
256396

Indian Shop Figure

Made of stained wood with some paint. Smal, dark-skinned figure holding a pipe in right hand and a bundle of tobacco leaves in the left. Feather headress, feather skirt, and beads around neck.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Made of stained wood with some paint. Smal, dark-skinned figure holding a pipe in right hand and a bundle of tobacco leaves in the left. Feather headress, feather skirt, and beads around neck.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
18th to early 19th century
ID Number
CL.65.1002
accession number
261195
catalog number
65.1002
collector/donor number
T-20

Indian Shop Figure

Made of carved wood with traces of paint. Standing figure, right hand holds a bundle of cigars. Figure is wearing a simplified, short-sleeved tunic, fringed trousers. Behind figure are stacked tobacco boxes. Simplified banded headdress.
Description (Brief)
Made of carved wood with traces of paint. Standing figure, right hand holds a bundle of cigars. Figure is wearing a simplified, short-sleeved tunic, fringed trousers. Behind figure are stacked tobacco boxes. Simplified banded headdress. Sheaf of tobacco leaves in left hand.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
mid 19th century
ID Number
CL.65.1001
catalog number
65.1001
accession number
261195
collector/donor number
T-43

Whitall Tatum Paperweight

In the 1700s, paperweights made from textured stone or bronze were part of the writer’s tool kit, which also included a quill pen and stand, inkpot, and blotter.
Description
In the 1700s, paperweights made from textured stone or bronze were part of the writer’s tool kit, which also included a quill pen and stand, inkpot, and blotter. By the mid-1800s, decorative paperweights produced by glassmakers in Europe and the United States became highly desired collectibles.
Decorative glass paperweights reflected the 19th-century taste for intricate, over-the-top designs. Until the spread of textiles colorized with synthetic dyes, ceramics and glass were among the few objects that added brilliant color to a 19th-century Victorian interior. The popularity of these paperweights in the 1800s testifies to the sustained cultural interest in hand craftsmanship during an age of rapid industrialization.
This paperweight is attributed to Whitall, Tatum & Company of Millville, New Jersey. The firm was formed in 1901 and employed first-rate craftsmen who created outstanding paperweights.
This pedestal paperweight features an opaque, rich yellow twelve-petal flower, freely suspended in a clear glass ball. The pointed center flower petals suggest that it is the work of glassmaker Emil Stanger.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1905-1912
maker
Whitall, Tatum and Company
ID Number
CE.60.96
catalog number
60.96
accession number
211475

Talk

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0328
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0328

Meissen two-handled bowl (Hausmaler)

TITLE: Meissen two-handled bowl (Hausmaler)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: L.
Description
TITLE: Meissen two-handled bowl (Hausmaler)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: L. (over handles) 6" 15.3 cm
OBJECT NAME: Bowl
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1730-1740 Meissen
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 73.178
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 274
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1943.
This bowl is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The bowl, which should have a cover, was made in the Meissen manufactory but painted outside by an independent artist. Hausmalerei is a German word that means in literal translation ‘home painting’, and it refers to the practice of painting enamels and gold onto the surface of blank ceramics and glass in workshops outside the manufactory of origin. Beginning in the seventeenth century the work of the Hausmaler varied in quality from the outstanding workshops of Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland), to the less skilled efforts of amateur artists. Early Meissen porcelain was sought after for this purpose, and wealthy patrons of local enameling and gilding workshops purchased undecorated porcelain, often of out-moded or inferior quality, which was then enameled with subjects of their choice. Hausmalerei was at first acceptable to the early porcelain manufactories like Meissen and Vienna, and Meissen sent blank porcelain to Augsburg workshops for decoration, but as the market became more competitive they tried to eradicate the practice. It was a temptation for Meissen porcelain painters to take on extra work as Hausmaler to augment their low pay, and the manufactory cautioned or even imprisoned them if Hausmalerei activity was suspected or discovered.
The so-called Watteau scenes (Watteauszenen) cover a large group of objects produced entirely within the Meissen Manufactory as well as those painted outside. The paintings of Claude Gillot (1673-1722) Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) and Nicholas Lancret (1690-1743), all of whom worked in Paris, introduced the elegiac fête galante, scenes of languid and amorous pursuits in lush parkland settings, often featuring figures from the Italian Comedy. These artists in particular established a highly successful genre that was reproduced in prints and adapted for enamel painting by many of the porcelain manufactories and Hausmaler in the mid-eighteenth century.
This bowl, and originally its cover which is missing, was painted in the mid-eighteenth century with finely dressed figures playing musical instruments, probably in the workshop of Franz Ferdinand Mayer of Pressnitz, Bohemia (now Přísečnice in the Czech Republic).
On Hausmaler see Ulrich Pietsch, 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, pp. 43-46.
On Antoine Watteau see Thomas Crow, 1985, Painters and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Paris, especially chapter II; Donald Posner, 1984, Antoine Watteau.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection, pp. 542-543.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1740
1740
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.73.178
catalog number
73.178
accession number
308538
collector/donor number
274

The Railhead Dump at Ménil-la-Tour

A charcoal and watercolor sketch on brown paper mounted on a white matte paper sealed in the front with a glass sheet and backed by a plastic sheet wrapped in plastic wrap. The scene is of a railhead dump at Menil-la-Tour.
Description
A charcoal and watercolor sketch on brown paper mounted on a white matte paper sealed in the front with a glass sheet and backed by a plastic sheet wrapped in plastic wrap. The scene is of a railhead dump at Menil-la-Tour. Approximately nine men wearing blue, possibly French, are seen in the sketch all over the picture. Seven men are working around a tall pile of baled hay seen in the center of the sketch. Another two men are working on the right side, dragging a sheet. Several tall covered piles are seen besides the hay pile. Two flat cars are seen on the rails. Trash is seen in on the right side behind a lone tree. Behind the trash is a building.
The sketch is mostly colored, but it is not entirely sketched. The sky is colored blue. The tree and the grass are painted green. Other colors include light blue, red, and brown/pink for the ground.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1918-06
maker
Smith, J. Andre
ID Number
AF.26058
catalog number
26058
accession number
64592

Quaker James Naylor's Entry into Bristol

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1700
ID Number
2014.0250.53.01
accession number
2014.0250
catalog number
2014.0250.53.01

Meissen stand for a tureen

MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “2” impressed;”52” impressed.PURCHASED FROM: E. Pinkus, New York, 1961.This oval stand is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr.
Description
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “2” impressed;”52” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: E. Pinkus, New York, 1961.
This oval stand is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began collecting in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The stand is from a large dinner service of which most pieces are Meissen but with some items made at the Höchst manufactory, presumably as replacements for items originally in the Meissen service. With a petal-shaped edge the plate has a molded foliate design on the flange and center known as the Gotzkowsky pattern, after the Berlin porcelain entrepreneur Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky (1710-1775), a pattern also known as “raised flowers” (erhabene Blumen) first modeled in 1741.
Following the appointment to the manufactory in 1733 of court sculptor Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775), modeling techniques became more sophisticated. The process of creating shallow relief patterns was laborious and required considerable skill. The sources for designs in relief came from pattern books and engravings, especially those by the French designer Jean Bérain the Elder (1638-1711), and the Nuremberg designer Paul Decker (1677-1713) among many others. Later rococo designs in the French style were disseminated through the German states principally by François Cuvilliés the Elder (1695-1768). These designs were applied in architecture, interior stucco work and wood carving, furniture, wall coverings, and ceramics.
Painted in onglaze enamel are sprays of natural flowers and on the rim there is a gold diaper pattern.
European flowers began to appear on Meissen porcelain in about 1740 as the demand for Far Eastern patterns became less dominant and more high quality printed sources became available in conjunction with growing interest in the scientific study of flora and fauna.
The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Flower and fruit painters were paid less than workers who specialized in figures and landscapes, and most painters received pay by the piece rather than a regular wage. Decoration in gold was applied by specialists in gold painting and polishing at Meissen.
On relief patterns and three dimensional modeling at Meissen see Reinheckel, G., 1968, ‘Plastiche Dekorationsformen im Meissner Porzellan des 18 Jahrhunderts’ in Keramos, 41/42, Juli/Oktober.
On graphic sources for Meissen porcelain see Möller, K. A., “Meissen Pieces Based on Graphic Originals” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp.85-93.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 410-411.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750
1750
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.245497.4
catalog number
245497.4
accession number
245497
collector/donor number
1224

Assembling Liberty Planes at Romorantin

A pencil and watercolor sketch on yellow paper that is mounted on a white matte paper sealed in the front with a glass sheet and backed by a plastic sheet wrapped in plastic wrap. The scene is of an airplane shop with workers assembling airplanes at Romorantin.
Description
A pencil and watercolor sketch on yellow paper that is mounted on a white matte paper sealed in the front with a glass sheet and backed by a plastic sheet wrapped in plastic wrap. The scene is of an airplane shop with workers assembling airplanes at Romorantin. Approximately ten people are seen in the sketch working on three different planes. The two main planes in the sketch do not have wings attached, but the propeller and the cockpit has been built. Clerestory windows are seen in the shop along with several ceiling lamps hanging above the planes. Only a select few parts of the painting are colored in brown.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1918
associated date
1917 - 1918
associated person
War Department
Smith, J. Andre
maker
Smith, J. Andre
ID Number
AF.25929
catalog number
25929
accession number
64592

The Miracle

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1884?
date made
1884
graphic artist
Bianchi, Mose di Giosue
ID Number
GA.14593
catalog number
14593
accession number
94830

Warrior Killing a Soldier

Unknown artist, about 1894“Cheyenne Picture. Warrior Killing a Soldier.”Ink and watercolorThis drawing shows the victory of a Cheyenne warrior over a U.S. Army soldier.
Description
Unknown artist, about 1894
“Cheyenne Picture. Warrior Killing a Soldier.”
Ink and watercolor
This drawing shows the victory of a Cheyenne warrior over a U.S. Army soldier. The artist depicts the warrior counting coup on his enemy by touching the fallen soldier with his riding whip (quirt). Counting coup - in this instance touching an adversary in battle - was considered an act of bravery that could gain war honors. This single event took place during a larger battle against many adversaries, as indicated by the large number of rifles at the left.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1875
date made
ca 1894
original artist
unknown
ID Number
GA.08111
accession number
1897.031963
catalog number
GA*08111
accession number
1897.31963

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