William Dunlap and the construction of an American art history: A study of the 'History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States' (1834).

摘要

Although scholars recognize William Dunlap's History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States (1834) as the founding text of American art history, it has never been the subject of a full-scale critical study. This dissertation analyzes the History as a cultural document by placing the book within the contexts of Dunlap's biography, contemporary writing on the fine arts in American books and serials, the dynamics of the art world of the 1830s, and subsequent published accounts of American art. Conceived as a speculative venture, the History represents the intersection of the two emerging fields in American society: the art profession and the popular publishing industry. Unlike the more ephemeral coverage of the visual arts in early nineteenth-century magazines and newspapers, the History offered a chronological account of the development of an American art tradition stretching from colonial to contemporary artists. By underlining the legitimacy of practicing artists, the History made an ambitious claim about the importance of American art on an international stage. By appealing to patriotic sentiment and public curiosity about artists' lives, Dunlap's account attempted to market the visual arts to a middle-class audience.;While the History remains an indispensable source on early American art, its status has obscured the contentious state of the contemporary art world and William Dunlap's active role in its factional disputes. The pages of the History reveal the generational, regional, stylistic, and institutional debates that preoccupied the American art community. Although Dunlap's career as a painter brought an informed perspective to his discussion of American artists, his partisan allegiances within the New York art world ensured that the History would be anything but an objective survey. This bias is most evident in the contrasting biographies of Benjamin West (1738-- 1820) and John Trumbull (1756--1843), the respective hero and villain of Dunlap's account. By restoring a historical context to the book, this dissertation transforms the History from a static biographical register to a vivid record of the struggle to establish a professional art community and shape a national visual culture.