Young America Hits Daytona Beach for the Holidays

No, this headline does not refer to spring break in Daytona Beach. . . .

Instead, we announce Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, an exhibition that opens today at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida. George Henry Durrie's Winter Scene is one of fifty-four artworks in the exhibition that trace the country's transformation from colonies to nationhood.

This canvas evokes nostalgia for a time in New England's past that is hard to reclaim. Even when Durrie painted this scene, the simple life was fading. After the Civil War, it was irretrievable. Such yearning fueled the popularity of prints by Currier and Ives, several of which reproduced Durrie's comforting images.

Source: Amy Pastan. Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (New York and Washington, D.C.: Watson-Guptill Publications, in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2000).

Pictured: George Henry Durrie, 1820–63, Winter Scene in New Haven, Connecticut, about 1858, oil, 18 x 24 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.