Wendy Ikemoto

My dissertation investigates the pendant canvas in antebellum American art. It studies four pairs: John Quidor’s Rip Van Winkle paintings (1839, 1849), Thomas Cole’s Departure and Return (1837), Titian Ramsay Peale’s Kilauea by Day and Kilauea by Night (1842), and Erastus Salisbury Field’s Ball portraits (1838). The project considers the pair and the interval as the primary components of the pendant and focuses on the role of the interval in cross-canvas dialogue. The dissertation draws upon theories of narrative to understand the way in which the pendant structure mediates signification. It also looks toward developments in antebellum literature and vision to understand the prominence of the pendant in nineteenth-century American art.