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Young America on the Move

"Anyone who loves American art, or who wishes to learn more of its history, can't fail to find something of interest in this small gem of an exhibition."—Philadelphia Inquirer

Hurry to see Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum before it closes today at the Albany Institute of History and Art in New York. Its next stop is the Terra Museum of American Art in Chicago beginning August 10, 2002.

In this show, major paintings and sculptures trace the transformation of the colonies into nationhood. Even this idyllic landscape by Robert Scott Duncanson tells a story. As America moved steadily toward Civil War, its most-renowned African American painter created this vision of a calm, orderly world. Tiny figures, seemingly unaffected by the panoramic scale of their surroundings, walk in an Eden-like setting graced by a rainbow. The wandering cattle and nearby cottage reinforce the sense that man lives in harmony with nature. Duncanson, son of free blacks, seems to envision a future free of prejudice and strife.

Source: Gwen Everett. Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured: Robert S. Duncanson, 1821/1822–1872, Landscape with Rainbow, 1859, oil, 30 1/8 x 52 1/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Leonard and Paula Granoff.