American+Victorian+Era-+Art+and+Music

__Art__ Courtney C.
====In general, American art of the 19th century involved a return to nature or simplicity. This emphasis on the natural world is evident in the Hudson River school and luminist styles of art. Simplicity can be seen in the Arts and Crafts Movement.====

Hudson River School--1835-1870
====Hudson River School painters were a group of landscape painters who were influenced by the book //Essay on the Nature and Principles of Taste//, which claimed that nature's beauty can foster morality. As America expanded westward, their depictions of the new land were very popular. These painters used a Romantic approach in their paintings of the Hudson River Valley, many eastern mountain ranges, and the frontier west. Hudson River School paintings were infused with moral and literary associations. ==== ====Popular artists of this movement were Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, and Albert Bierstadt. Thomas Cole was the main artist of the Hudson River School. Because he had no formal art training, his artistic ideas were influenced by literature and poetry. These influences are evident in his paintings, which included pastorals, American and British landscapes, and religious works. ====


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Luminism--1850-1875
====Luminism is the American counterpart to Impressionism. It developed from the Hudson River School style of painting. This movement involved the effects of light in landscapes and seascapes. Luminism in further characterized by the hiding of visible brushstrokes and the implement of aerial perspective. Light was used to add drama to sunsets or misty scenes. Some notable luminists include John F. Kensett, Frederick E. Church, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Fitz Hugh Lane, and Martin J. Heade.====

American Impressionism--1880-1920
====By the mid-1800's, America caught the impressionist style from France. Impressionism involved using rapid brushstrokes amd bright, vivid colors, resulting in an unrealistic picture. However, unlike the French, American impressionists focused on portraying high society. Their landscapes were also picturesque. Mary Cassatt was America's most important impressionist. Other American impressionists were members of the Ten American Painters, a group of artists who held art exhibitions in New York each year between 1898 and 1906. Many artists chose to live in picturesque artists' colonies. Most paintings portrayed the countryside or domestic life. ====

Arts and Crafts Movement in America--1870-1900
====[|The Arts and Crafts movement]  was a response to mass-produced, manufactured goods. Artisans of this movement favored the traditional values of simplicity, craftsmanship, and quality design. The Arts and Crafts Movement was influenced by the Gothic Revival and Pre-Raphaelite paintings and writings. When the British Wiliam Morris began selling his wallpaper and carpeting in America, many artisans were inspired to create their own designs. Cincinnati and Boston were major hubs of this movement. Architecture was also affected by the movement, with a return to the American Colonial style of architecture in the Queen Anne Revival. ==== ====While the British movement focused on intricate Gothic styles, the American movement focused on the materials used to make each product, such as the grain of the wood. The British movement eventually failed because the products were too costly for most people to afford. Americans eventually used machines in order to allow the craftsmen to put the furniture together and add finishing touches, lowering prices and making the products more affordable. ====


====During the Victorian Era of America, architecture turned to a Gothic Revival. From England, this spread to America, where the style of architecture was deemed the "Carpenter Gothic" style. Distinctly American, this style was known for its pointed windows and steep gables. Gothic cottages were mainly constructed in the vertical "board and batton" style. The American wooden "Gingerbread" tracery replaced  the English stone tracery, and this embellishment came to be considered a folk art.==== ====Antebellum Victorian structures were more simplistic than those built after the Civil War. Post-Civil War American buildings were elaborate and could be composed from different styles: Queen Anne, Second Empire, Stick-Eastlake, and Italianate. The Queen Anne had a gabled roof, angled bay windows under the gable, shingled insets, and sometimes a tower. Stick-Eastlake structures had square bays, free-style decorations, and flat roof lines. Italianate structures had porches with Corinthian columns, flat roof lines, angled bay windows, and corniced eaves.====

__<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Arial Black', Gadget, sans-serif;">The Art of Entertainment __
====[|American Vaudeville] emerged after the Civil War and resulted in the transition to popular entertainment as big business. This new form of entertainment was basically a variety show. The "father of vaudeville" was Benjamin Franklin Keith. Keith worked in show business and eventually built his own theater after the success of his museum where he featured acts and shows. Vaudeville produced a successful form of entertainment for the urban middle class by featuring a variety of performances ranging from singers, dancers, and minstrels to comedians and trained animals.====

__<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Arial Black', Gadget, sans-serif;">Music __
====One of the main forms of music to emerge in America during the Victorian Era was related to the English "music hall" style. This style involved a fusion of different musical styles. In the 1840's, Stephen Foster combined the Negro spiritual with the traditional folk song to create this new, popular style of music.==== <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During the Civil War, patriotic songs appeared in both the Union and the Confederacy. These songs were used to inspire patriotism, and some of the songs were used as marching songs. Some of the songs include "[|Anthem of Liberty]" by William Storrs Willis, "[|Hold on Abraham]" by William Batchelder Bradbury, "Dixie," and "Secession Wagon." To hear samples of more Civil War songs, click [|here]. Brass bands also arose in the 1850's. Main instruments were the saxhorn and the cornet. John Philip Sousa began creating his famous marches in the 1970's. His most famous work was "Stars and Stripes Forever." Sousa's band was the most popular musical act in the world for 30 years, and it was also the first American musical organization to take a world tour. Sousa set a precedent for other march composers and was the most important composer of marches in history.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> __Scavenger Hunt Questions:__ <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Which style of painting relied on the view that nature can foster morality? 2. What are the two main features of a "Carpenter Gothic" structure? 3. Vaudeville marked the transition of what? 4. What were the three values most important to the Arts and Crafts movement artisans? 5. What made American impressionist paintings different from French impressionist paintings?

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