1. American Art and Literature Romantic Era
19th century, Antebellum

2. American Romantic Era Influenced by European Romantic Era
Uniquely American
Literature—Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau
Art—Hudson River School
Thomas Cole, Frederick Edwin Church, Fitz Henry Lane, John James Audubon, George Catlin

3. Slave Songs Arwhoolies—Call and response; instrument = voice
Cornfield Holler
Oh, etc.  I won't be here long. Oh, etc.  Oh, dark gonna catch me here, Dark gonna catch me here. Oh, etc.

4. Thomas Cole: A View of the Mountain Pass Called the Notch of the White Mountains, 1839
Cole believed the intellect was paramount in creating great works of art. He wrote, "If the imagination is shackled, and nothing is described but what we see, seldom will anything truly great be produced in either Painting or Poetry."
(left) Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), Portrait of Thomas Cole, c. 1845, pencil on paper, John Wilmerding Collection; National Gallery of Art

5. Thomas Cole, Sunrise in the Catskills, 1826

6. Frederic Edwin Church, Fog off Mount Desert, 1850

7. Fitz Henry Lane, Stage Rocks and Western Shore of Gloucester Outer Harbor, 1857

8. Mount Desert Island, Maine (Location of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park)

9. John James Audubon
Whip-poor-will, 1830
Pileated Woodpecker, 1831

10. George Catlin, The White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas, 1844/1845

11. Contextualization
1. What else was happening in America at the time these paintings were created ( )? List as many things as you can. 2. Write a thesis statement that reflects how one or more of these paintings reflects an emerging ideal about democracy in America OR an emerging concept of American identity. (Remember, a good thesis statement does more than restating the question.)