UT art historian looks back at American art around 1776
UT Austin professor Susan Rather discussed how artists were viewed around the American Revolution and how subjects changed in the early 1800s. The Q&A is tied to the nation's 250th anniversary.
UT Austin art history professor Susan Rather revisited what it meant to make art around 1776, when many people who worked by hand were still grouped with trades. Her book, The American School, examines artists and status in the late colonial and early national period.
Rather described portrait painting as the main paid work for many artists in that era, while history painting carried higher cultural ambition. By the 1820s and around 1830, American painters increasingly turned to national subjects, including local life, politics, and wide natural scenes, as pride in the young country grew.