1. American Art and Literature in the 19th Century

2. 19th century Art and Literature
MAIN IDEA:
The growing prosperity and the national spirit led to a movement in America for writers and artists to produce art and literature which was truly American.

3. American Literature Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter
Herman Melville – Moby Dick
Henry David Thoreau – Walden
Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass
Washington Irving – Rip Van Winkle, The Headless Horseman
James Fenimore Cooper – The Last of the Mohicans
Edgar Allan Poe

4. Transcendentalism Individual spirit rising above society
Urged each person to find “an original relation to the universe”
“I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing; I see all; The currents of the universal being circulate through me.” William Wordsworth
"We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds...A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

5. “The world is but a canvas to our imagination.”
Transcendentalism
“The world is but a canvas to our imagination.”
Henry David Thoreau

6. Civil Disobedience Transcendentalism
Henry David Thoreau refused to pay taxes and served time in jail because he believed the Mexican-American War was unjust.
Henry David Thoreau

7. Civil Disobedience Transcendentalism
“Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?”
Henry David Thoreau

8. Transcendentalism
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

11. American Art Hudson River School (1825)
A group of New York City painters
Painted American landscapes showing the beauty of America
Nature is not the background – nature is the painting

13. American Art James Audubon
Drew birds, mammals, plants, and other subjects from nature

17. 19th century Art and Literature
MAIN IDEA:
The growing prosperity and the national spirit led to a movement in America for writers and artists to produce art and literature which was truly American.
The “truly American” spirit was a spirit of free thought and individualism.
This will lead to American citizens standing up to reform parts of society they felt were unfair or harmful.