Arrivederci, Young America!

Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum closes today at the Cheekwood Museum of Art in Nashville, Tennessee.

It opens next at Middlebury College Museum of Art in Middlebury, Vermont, on September 14. Young America traces the transformation of the colonies into nationhood with more than fifty paintings, including Torre di Schiavi by Thomas Hiram Hotchkiss.

As if contemplating Rome's glorious past and human mortality, a solitary herdsman sits among the ruins of a third-century villa, with architectural fragments and funerary urns. Tor de' Schiavi, which means "Slaves' Tower," was a popular destination for American tourists and artists.The site, associated with the Roman practice of slavery, was a poignant reminder to Americans of their country's struggle with the same issue.

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

Pictured: Thomas Hiram Hotchkiss, about 1834–1869, Torre di Schiavi, 1865, oil, 22 3/8 x 34 3/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.