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The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

April 14 – July 21, 2019
West Building, Ground Floor - East Outer Tier Galleries

Thomas Charles Farrer, Mount Tom, 1865, oil on canvas, John Wilmerding Collection, Promised Gift

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of John Ruskin (1819–1900), the most influential art critic of the Victorian era, the Gallery presents more than 90 paintings, watercolors, and drawings created by American artists who were profoundly influenced by Ruskin’s call for a revolutionary change in the practice of art. The exhibition includes a number of recently discovered works never before exhibited publicly. Ruskin’s rejection of traditional academic art and his plea for works that reflected a deep reverence for both the spiritual and scientific qualities of the natural world found a sympathetic audience in America among a group of like-minded artists, architects, scientists, critics, and collectors. New research, included in the exhibition catalog, reveals that the members of the Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art sought reform not only in the practice of art, but also in the broader political arena—most were abolitionists deeply engaged in the fight against slavery. Coded references to the Civil War are present in a number of exquisitely detailed landscape paintings that do not appear—at first glance—to carry symbolic meaning. Members of the group followed Ruskin’s dictum to record the natural world with strict fidelity, but they also created works that often include a rich political subtext.

The exhibition is curated by Linda S. Ferber, museum director emerita and senior art historian at the New-York Historical Society, with Nancy K. Anderson, curator and head of the department of American and British paintings at the National Gallery of Art.

The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

Fidelia Bridges, Milkweeds, 1876, watercolor on paper, Proctor Collection, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Museum of Art, Utica. Image: Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute/Art Resource, NY
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

Henry Farrer, Winter Scene in Moonlight, 1869, watercolor and gouache on white wove paper, Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Morris K. Jessup Fund, Martha and Barbara Fleischman, and Katherine and Frank Martucci Gifts, 1999
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

Thomas Charles Farrer, Sketching from Nature, 1861, pen and black and brown ink on paper, cut into the shape of an arch, National Gallery of Art, Washington, John Davis Hatch Collection. Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

William John Hennessy, Mon Brave, 1870, oil on board, Brooklyn Museum, New York, Purchased with Funds given by the Rembrandt Club
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

John Henry Hill, Gentians, 1870, watercolor heightened with gum glaze over graphite on paper, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

John William Hill, Bird’s Nest and Dog Roses, 1867, watercolor, gouache, graphite, and selective glazing with scratching out on paper, New-York Historical Society, Gift of Mrs. Roswell Skeel, Jr. Photography © New-York Historical Society
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

John William Hill, West Nyack, New York (The Lilies of the Field), 1868, watercolor on paper, Brooklyn Museum, New York, Gift of George J. Arden, Carroll J. Dickson, Mrs. Alfred T. Dillhoff, the Estate of Emil Fuchs, Mrs. Willis Reese, and Dr. Ben Shenson, by exchange, and the Dick S. Ramsay Fund
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

Charles Herbert Moore, Hudson River, Above Catskill, 1865, oil on canvas, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

Charles Herbert Moore, Pine Tree, 1868, pen and black ink with touches of graphite on tan board, Princeton University Art Museum, Gift of Miss Elizabeth Huntington Moore, the artist’s daughter. Image: Princeton University Art Museum/Art Resource, NY
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

Henry Roderick Newman, Grapes and Olives, 1878, watercolor on paper, Brooklyn Museum, New York, Purchased with funds given by Sol Schreiber in memory of Rose Schreiber, and with funds given by Joanne Witty and Eugene Keilin, Dick S. Ramsay Fund and Designated Purchase Fund
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

William Trost Richards, A Neglected Corner of the Wheatfield, 1865, oil on canvas, Private collection
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

John Ruskin, Fragment of the Alps, c. 1854–1856, watercolor and gouache over graphite on cream wove paper, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Gift of Samuel Sachs. Imaging Department © President and Fellows of Harvard College
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

John Ruskin, Twig of Peach Bloom, c. 1874, watercolor and gouache on cream wove paper, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Bequest of Mrs. Alfred Mansfield Brooks. Imaging Department © President and Fellows of Harvard College
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

Aaron Draper Shattuck, Leaf Study with Yellow Swallow Tail, c. 1859, oil on canvas, Private collection. Photography by Laura Wulf
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

William J. Stillman, Photographic Study from Photographic Studies by W. J. Stillman. Part 1. The Forest. Adirondac Woods, 1859, albumen print, Milne Library Special Collections, State University of New York College at Geneseo

Organization: The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art. Major support provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.

Additional funding is provided by The Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts.

Passes: Admission is always free and passes are not required

Attendance: 66,415

Catalog: The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists. By Linda S. Ferber and Nancy Anderson. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art; New haven and London: Yale University Press, 2019.

Feature: The American Pre-Raphaelites: Participants, Patrons, Advocates

Past Exhibition: Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900s
February 17 – May 19, 2013

Press Materials

Ruskin, John
British, 1819 - 1900
Farrer, Thomas Charles
British, 1839 - 1891

Lectures
Introduction to the Exhibition—The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists
April 14 at 12:00
East Building Auditorium

American Pre-Raphaelitism through the Lens and on the Canvas
June 16 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium

Concerts
Poulenc Trio
May 5 at 3:30
West Building, West Garden Court

Poulenc Trio
Audio, Released: May 19, 2020, (48:45 minutes)
American Pre-Raphaelitism through the Lens and on the Canvas
Audio, Released: September 24, 2019, (52:26 minutes)
Introduction to the Exhibition—The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists
Video, Released: June 18, 2019, (48:22 minutes)
The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists Promo
Video, Released: April 14, 2019, (00:15 minutes)
Press Event: The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists
Audio, Released: April 9, 2019, (21:30 minutes)