: A new exhibition showcasing patriotic themes in American fine,
folk and decorative arts from the late Eighteenth through early
Twentieth Centuries is on view July 4 to October 26 at Shelburne
Museum.
"Red, White, and Blue: American Patriotic Images" is installed in
the recently renovated Stagecoach Inn Gallery and combines 50
examples of distinctly patriotic imagery from the museum's
holdings of paintings, decorative arts, textiles, folk art
sculpture, trade signs, toys and utilitarian objects.
Shelburne Museum's collections of art, architecture and Americana
documents evolving American aesthetics from the settlement era to
the mid-Twentieth Century, but some pieces are more pointedly
celebratory of national pride than others. Potent symbols such as
eagles, American Flags, the "liberty" icon, and leaders,
including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, are consistently
present in artistic mediums as disparate as scrimshaw (carved
whale's tooth), oil paintings and porcelain. In addition to works
of fine and decorative art, "Red, White, and Blue" also includes
an array of artifacts originally created with strictly
utilitarian purposes in mind: coins, razors, flasks, hatboxes and
penny banks, for example. Common to each piece in the exhibition,
whether a complete artistic expression or the embellishment of an
everyday object, is imagery celebrating American identity and
patriotism.
Highlights of "Red, White, and Blue" include "Penn's Treaty with
the Indians," circa 1840, an oil painting by Edward Hicks
(1780-1849). The painting depicts the scene of a compromise
reached in 1681 between William Penn and natives of the area that
came to be Pennsylvania. This painting is one of nine known
versions of the scene painted by Hicks.
The "liberty" icon -- which originated in France during the
French Revolution and was appropriated in the colonies during the
American Revolution -- represented in a range of formats
including embroidery, coins, plates and weathervanes, is also
featured. Perhaps most notable is a nearly four-foot-high
weathervane pattern made in 1849 that was included in the first
exhibition, at the Newark (NJ) Museum in 1931, of folk art ever
organized at an American art museum.
The Revolutionary Soldier carved and painted wooden toy, made in
the early Nineteenth Century, may have been part of a set. It was
recognized as an exceptional piece of folk art in the early
Twentieth Century and was cataloged for the Index of American
Design. The piece complements an anonymous circa 1775 watercolor
also in the exhibition, "Officer of the American Revolution."
American flags of various periods are depicted in quilts, trade
signs, hooked rugs and paintings. Of special note is one of the
most striking pieces of folk art in Shelburne Museum's
collections, the Fish with Flag trade sign from the
mid-Nineteenth Century. Fish were often used in trade signs to
advertise a tavern, and in this example a brilliantly colored
American flag has been added over the fish to draw the viewer's
eye.
The sculpture George Washington on Horseback, also dated to the
mid-Nineteenth Century, is an example of craftsmanship combining
painted wood, leather and brass. The image is of Washington
seated on a white horse, and is believed to be inspired by Thomas
Sully's famous 1819 painting, "The Passage of the Delaware."
Eagles carved in the late Nineteenth Century by the itinerant
artist Wilhelm Schimmel are on view. Schimmel was active in
central Pennsylvania, where he would trade his work for food or
drink. His bird carvings were very expressive, highlighted by
heavily textured feathers crosshatched in a stylized manner.
Schimmel's art began to be rediscovered in the 1920s.
The Shelburne Museum is on Route 7. for information,
802-985-3346 or www.shelburnemuseum.org.
