Virginia Historical Society

Richmond, VA

804-342-9665

http://www.vahistorical.org

The Virginia Landscape

Thomas Jefferson once boasted to a friend in England, "Our own country . . . is made on an improved plan. Europe is a first idea, a crude production, before the [M]aker knew his trade." He was talking about the landscape of Virginia, and an exhibition which opened July 13, 2000, at the Virginia Historical Society may provide compelling evidence to support his notion. "The Virginia Landscape," the largest assembly of Virginia landscape images ever exhibited, illustrates the importance of the landscape in shaping the commonwealth and creating its identity. More than 240 landscape paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs, dating from the colonial period to the present, reveal much about Virginia's natural history and the attitudes of its citizens.(left: Edward Beyer, The Peaks of Otter and the Town of Liberty, 1855, The Virginia Historical Society)

Initially, the commonwealth was best known for its natural landmarks like the Dismal Swamp, the Peaks of Otter, and Natural Bridge. Visitors traveled great distances - even across oceans - just to see these wonders. With the fame of such historic landmarks as Mount Vernon, Monticello, Jamestown, and Yorktown, Virginia soon became known also as a place where significant American history unfolded. Artists painted these sites as a way to remember history. Other canvases illustrate the effect of twentieth-century patterns of growth on the natural environment. "Never before has such a body of work been displayed or critically examined," remarks Charles F. Bryan, Jr., director of the Virginia Historical Society. (left: Alexis Fournier, The Passing Storm, Shenandoah Valley, 1923, The Virginia Historical Society; right: Hubert Vos, Mossy Creek, c. 1900, The Virginia Historical Society)

"The Virginia Landscape" is about the land and the cultural and historic changes that have occurred in the commonwealth during the last four centuries. It traces the rural settlement of the colony and state along the models of the plantation and market town, and examines the meaning of progress in Virginia by following the visual record of urban growth and the construction of canals and railroads. It surveys Virginia's Civil War landscape, which in 1864 inspired Walt Whitman's interest: "Dilapidated, fenceless, and trodden with war as Virginia is, wherever I move across her surface, I find myself rous'd to surprise and admiration. What capacity for production, improvements, human life, nourishment and expansion." The exhibit follows the path of landscape imagery to the end of the twentieth century, when a tradition of nature painting finally was established in the state, in defiance of environmental threats to the land. (left: Rockwell Kent, Child Under Tree, Virginia, 1956, The Virginia Historical Society; right: Edward Beyer, A View of Salem, 1855, The Virginia Historical Society)

Scattered throughout this multi-gallery landmark exhibit are works by well-known figures such as Albert Bierstadt, George Inness , David Johnson, Rockwell Kent Gari Melchers, Charles Sheeler, William Louis Sonntag, Wayne Thiebaud, Wordsworth Thompson, and Thomas Worthington Whittredge, as well as a number of lesser known but highly competent artists like Edward Beyer, Alexis Fournier, and Theresa Pollack. "The Virginia Landscape," on view through November 12, 2000, is underwritten by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the Robins Foundation, and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. (left: Lefevre Cranstone, Richmond, Virginia, 1859, The Virginia Historical Society)

"The Virginia Landscape: A Cultural History," the 224-page exhibition catalog containing hundreds of color images of the landscape paintings, is co-authored by the exhibition co-curators Dr. James C. Kelly and Dr. William M. S. Rasmussen. The catalog is available in the Museum Shop.

Read more about the Virginia Historical Society in Resource Library Magazine

Please Note: RLM does not endorse sites behind external links. We offer them for your additional research; external links were chosen on the basis of being the most informative online source at the time of our search.

Be sure to visit more of Resource Library Magazine with museum exhibition news, stories on American art, calendars, and more. Here are links to selected sections of the magazine:

• Feature articles indexed by date of publication, from 1997 to the present
• Articles concerning art museums, indexed by institution name in alphabetical order
• Articles concerning non-profit art organizations other than museums, indexed by name of organization in alphabetical order
• Feature articles indexed by subject and media - over three dozen mini-magazines
• Sources of articles indexed by state within the United States
• Calendar of art museum exhibitions, current and future years
• Milestones, including appointments, new buildings, etc.
• Appraisals, authentication, conservation and artist identification for original art and reproductions
• Columnists: Ann Avery Andres, Sarah Beserra, Roger Dunbier and Ann Erskine
• Art sellers' showcase and sponsorships
• Books, magazines, videos and more
• Cameos of historic American art collections
• Distinguished artists, including an alphabetical index of over 1,000 deceased American artists
• Magazine table of contents
• User agreement
• Editorial policies
• Advertising and sponsorship options

Copyright 1996-2000 Traditional Fine Art Online, Inc. All rights reserved.

• Links to to other TFAOI.COM divisions.
• Miscellaneous links to sites outside of TFAOI.COM.