{"id":2140,"date":"2017-10-27T10:58:12","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T14:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/?p=2140"},"modified":"2018-06-28T11:01:45","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T15:01:45","slug":"theodore-robinsons-angelus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/2017\/10\/27\/theodore-robinsons-angelus\/","title":{"rendered":"Theodore Robinson’s Angelus"},"content":{"rendered":"

I began my research on Theodore Robinson\u2019s <\/em>Angelus\u00a0(Figure 1) during the spring of my freshman year as a student in Tanya Sheehan\u2019s <\/em>Reading Images course (AR101W). \u00a0Researching the painting for a discourse analysis paper, I made interesting historical discoveries that allowed me to explore aspects of Robinson\u2019s career that previously had been neglected or brushed over. \u00a0This summer I continued my project as a Mellon intern at the Colby College Museum of Art, and hope to produce an expanded essay on the subject for publication in <\/em>American Art.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 1: Theodore Robinson,\u00a0Angelus<\/em>, c. 1879. Oil on canvas, 30 1\/2 x 20 3\/8 in. (77\/47 cm x 51.75 cm). Colby College Museum of Art. Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Nevil Ford, 1980.004.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although later in his career he achieved considerable success as an impressionist under the influence of Claude Monet, in 1879, the year of his <\/span>Angelus<\/span><\/i>, Robinson was a novice American artist who supported himself through his work as an illustrator, and soon after, as a mural and architectural decorator. \u00a0Rather than following Monet\u2019s impressionism, Robinson embraced Winslow Homer\u2019s realism (Figures 2 and 3) in his four illustrations for the 1880 editions of the children\u2019s magazine <\/span>Harper\u2019s Young People <\/span><\/i>(Figures 4 and 5)<\/span>. <\/span>Suzette\u00a0<\/span><\/i>(Figure 6)<\/span>, one of Robinson\u2019s drawings for that magazine, illustrates the short story \u201cViola\u2019s Sketch\u201d by a Mrs. W. J. Hays. \u00a0That story\u2019s depiction of bourgeois anxiety and escapism are emblematic of the period\u2019s anti-modernism, \u201cthe recoil from an \u2018overcivilized\u2019 modern existence to more intense forms of physical or spiritual experience.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/span>\u00a0Because it either inspired, or was inspired by, <\/span>Suzette<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Angelus<\/span><\/i>, a 30 \u00bd inch by 20 \u215c inch oil on canvas that hangs at the Colby College Museum of Art, changes our understanding of artists\u2019 self-sustaining work as illustrators in the second half of the nineteenth century, and the significant ways in which those artists influenced, and were influenced by, the field of American illustration and literature.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 2 (left):\u00a0Spring Farm Work\u2014Grafting<\/em>, 1870. Wood engraving.<\/p>\n

Figure 3 (right):\u00a0On the Stile<\/em>, 1878. Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper.\u00a0National Gallery of Art, Landover, Maryland. Both works by Winslow Homer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As people moved in large numbers from the countryside to the city following the Civil War, they were forced to adapt their lifestyles to a capitalist work ethic that demanded not only an accelerated pace of life, but also a revised sense of self. \u00a0Disillusioned with society\u2019s mechanization, Protestants, who constituted the cultural hegemons of the period as moral and intellectual leaders of the American bourgeoisie, turned toward anti-modernism.[2]<\/a><\/span>\u00a0Seeking a \u201csimpler life,\u201d they emphasized the virtue of life on the land and the ennobling power of hard work, believing that the rural life was a path to moral regeneration.[3]<\/a><\/span>\u00a0In order to combat the almost unreal quality of mechanized labor and a thoroughly systematized existence, many members of the bourgeoisie began a quest for \u201creal life,\u201d intense experience became an end in itself, and the vacation cottage or rustic exurban home an ideal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Contemporary American artists produced art that catered to the strained bourgeoisie. \u00a0As a result of the reality of expansive capitalism that impacted diverse areas of the economy, the American farmer, who now constituted an important point in the economic nexus, proved \u201cindistinguishable from any other ordinary, dull American,\u201d and therefore \u201cnot \u2018peasant\u2019 enough for art.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/span>\u00a0 Instead, the French peasant, with her old-world archaism, served as the most moving symbol of the purity of preindustrial life. \u00a0Artists such as Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet, William Morris Hunt, Claude Monet, and Theodore Robinson capitalized on the market for French peasants and landscapes, symbols of tradition and continuity in the face of the loss of familiar frames of reference, producing numerous paintings for an urban elite audience removed from the harsh realities of agricultural work. \u00a0Indeed, paintings such as Robinson\u2019s <\/span>Etude<\/span><\/i>, which depicts a stolid peasant woman standing next to three large haystacks, and his <\/span>Val D\u2019arconville<\/span><\/i>, which pictures a woman reading on a hill overlooking a picturesque rural town, demonstrate the purity and moral supremacy of the French countryside and its people, presenting a comforting scene for American viewers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 4 (left):\u00a0Noon-time in the Meadow<\/em>, 1880. Engraving for “How John Goodnow Got His Own Way” in the magazine\u00a0Harper’s Young People<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Figure 5 (right):\u00a0Hetty and Jim<\/em>, 1880. Engraving for “Hetty” in the magazine\u00a0Harper’s Young People<\/em>. Both works by Theodore Robinson.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Children\u2019s literature espoused an image of the American countryside as uncorrupted, therapeutic, and moral. \u00a0Common tropes in the 1879\/1880 editions of <\/span>Harper\u2019s Young People <\/span><\/i>include the grit of colonists, the idealization of country life, the chaos of the city, the intrigue of faraway lands, and children\u2019s innocence. \u00a0Of special focus, especially within W. J. Hays\u2019s stories, was the rehabilitating transition from city to country, \u201cthe tale of jaded urban lives restored by country air.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/span>\u00a0Because children, with their carefree and spontaneous nature, seemed removed from the anxiety and self-consciousness of the mechanized adult world, they became associated with the premodern and mythical, two qualities that were conflated. <\/span><\/p>\n

Angelus <\/span><\/i>is the perfect example of the overlap between children\u2019s literature and \u201cfine art\u201d during the second half of the nineteenth century. \u00a0The anti-modernism implicit within children\u2019s literature at the time often manifested itself in fine art through the medium of illustration, which provided artists ready-made sketches they developed into paintings sold to bourgeois clients. \u00a0Although the impact of illustrative work on their fine-art careers was profound, young artists such as Theodore Robinson, J. Alden Weir, and William Merritt Chase pursued illustration simply as a source of income to support their larger ambitions. The contributions of artists to children\u2019s literature were similarly significant: illustrations marketed magazines successfully and also provided visual outlets for city children and their exhausted parents. \u00a0Thus illustration served as the crossroads between two cultural manifestations of anti-modern thought, namely children\u2019s literature and fine art, and in that unique capacity influenced the artists who created it, the authors and art directors who utilized it, and the general public who consumed it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 6: Theodore Robinson,\u00a0Suzette<\/em>, 1880. Engraving for “Viola’s Sketch” in the magazine\u00a0Harper’s Young People<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[1]<\/a>\u00a0Lears, T. J. Jackson. <\/span>No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880\u20131920<\/span><\/i>. University of Chicago Press, 1996. xiii.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., 74\u20135.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>\u00a0Burns, Sarah. <\/span>Pastoral Inventions: Rural Life in Nineteenth-Century American Art and Culture<\/span><\/i>. Temple University Press, 1989. 225.<\/span><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., 240.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I began my research on Theodore Robinson\u2019s Angelus\u00a0(Figure 1) during the spring of my freshman year as a student in Tanya Sheehan\u2019s Reading Images course (AR101W). \u00a0Researching the painting for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8593,"featured_media":2168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[526146],"tags":[386669,414755,386667,386678,386673,414754,386680,386675,93160,386672,99394,386677,386679,386674,386670,386668,386671],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/files\/2017\/10\/Angelus-High-Res-e1509369868266.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3U3TZ-yw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8593"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2140"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2789,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140\/revisions\/2789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}