Vistas de Espana: American views of art and life in Spain, 1860-1898.
Item
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Title
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Vistas de Espana: American views of art and life in Spain, 1860-1898.
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Identifier
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AAI9630439
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identifier
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9630439
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Creator
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Boone, M. Elizabeth.
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Contributor
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Adviser: H. Barbara Weinberg
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Date
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1996
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Art History
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Abstract
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My dissertation explores the Spanish subject paintings of six American artists active during the years 1860 to 1898. Samuel Colman, George Henry Hall, Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, and William Merritt Chase all visited the Iberian peninsula during this period. Following a prescribed itinerary, they spent time in Madrid in order to view the Old Master paintings in the Prado and settled in more remote regions, where gipsies, street vendors, bullfighters, and flamenco dancers became the subjects of their colorful canvases. The goal in Spain appears to have been two-fold: while rounding out their educations through the study of Murillo, Velazquez and the Spanish Old Masters, American artists were simultaneously able to experience and paint a culture dramatically different from their own.;The paintings that resulted from these trips are fascinating documents of an important encounter between American and Spanish culture. Drawing upon recent theoretical writing in gender and ethnic studies, my contention is that Spanish influences on American art were filtered through the lens of contemporary political tensions over changing balances of power in the years preceding the Spanish-American War. Americans selectively viewed Spain's land and people, and the paintings produced by these artists embody contemporary assumptions about the historical and future importance of the country that had "discovered" the American continent. In short, Spain was admired for its artistic and cultural contributions of the past, but largely derided for its contemporary state of decline. Selective viewing of Spain enabled Americans of the late-nineteenth century to better define their own history and to predict an eminent future for themselves.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
