(August 18, 1863 - March 18, 1930) was an American painter best known for his series of 78 scenes from American history, entitled The Pageant of a Nation, the largest series of American historical paintings by a single artist. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Stephen James Ferris, a portrait painter and a devotee of Jean-L??on G??rôme (after whom he was named) and Mariano Fortuny.He grew up around art, having been trained by his father and having two acclaimed painters, Edward Moran and Thomas Moran, as uncles. Ferris enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1879 and trained further at the Acad??mie Julian beginning in 1883 under William-Adolphe Bouguereau.He also met his namesake G??rôme, who greatly influenced Ferris's decision to paint scenes from American history. As Ferris wrote in his unpublished autobiography, "[G??rôme's] axiom was that one would paint best that with which he is most familiar". However, initially his subjects were Orientalist in nature, that movement having been in vogue when he was young. Some of his material was original, some of it took after Fortuny, but he was skilled enough, despite never having had any experience with Asia. In 1882, he exhibited a painting entitled Feeding the Ibis, which was valued at $600. By 1895, Ferris had gained a reputation as a historical painter, and he embarked on his dream of creating a series of paintings that told a historical narrative. In 1898 he sold one of these, General Howe's Levee, 1777, but he later regretted it, realizing that such a series could not be complete if the separate paintings could not be kept together. As such, he never sold another one of those, but he did sell the reproduction rights to various publishing companies. This later would have the effect of greatly popularizing his work, as these companies made prints, postcards, calendars and blank-backed trade cards use in advertisements. Laminated cards of these works were still being sold as late as 1984. The Landing of William PennThe paintings showed idealized portrayals of famous moments from American history, but were often historically inaccurate. The Landing of William Penn, for example, shows Penn being greeted at New Castle by American Indians who are clothed in the tradition of tribes from the Great Plains. In The First Thanksgiving 1621, the black outfits the Pilgrims are shown wearing are wrong, and the Wampanoag did not wear feathered war bonnets, nor would they have been sitting on the ground. The complete series was shown at Independence Hall in Philadelphia from 1913 to 1930, then moved next door to Congress Hall. In later years it was shown in a number of locations, including the Smithsonian Institution, before being returned to the Ferris family.  Related Paintings of Jean Leon Gerome Ferris :. | The Fall of New Amsterdam | Writing the Declaration of Independence, 1776 | Captain Kidd in New York Harbor | The Landing of William Penn | Mayflower Compact |
Related Artists:
James Gillray
English Illustrator, 1757-1815 English caricaturist and illustrator. He was essentially self-trained although he studied at the Royal Academy and on the Continent. His caricatures of the court of George III made him immensely popular. His masterly delineations, vigorous, clever, often subtle, sometimes vulgar and grotesque, numbered more than 12,000. Among his best-known cartoons are A New Way to Pay the National Debt (1796), Social Elements in Skating (1805),
Arthur Dove
American 1880-1946 Dove returned to America in 1909 and met Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz, the eldest child of a New York rich family and was send to study in Germany at the age of 16 where he was overtaken with the passion of photography. In 1905 he returned to New York with 15 years of experience he was at the front lines to make photography respected as one of the fine art. Alfred Stieglitz was a well known photographer and gallery owner who was very active in promoting modern art in America. In his attempt to educate the art public, he started to introduce other art besides photography. Along with American modernists he would show European work. These pieces had never been seen in the United States.[1] Stieglitz was a New York art world celebrity.[1] Dove made the decision to quit his career as an illustrator but was in need of artistic identity along with emotional bolstering and Stieglitz filled both.[5] The photographer was 61, 16 years younger than Dove and with Anglo-Saxon heritage, being Protestant with a small town background was in contrast to Stieglitz??s experience being urban, Jewish and rooted in European culture. Dove was gentle, quite, and a good friend while Stieglitz was argumentative and shrewd. They both had in common that they believed art forms should embody modern spiritual values not materialism and tradition. Stieglitz was later the husband of the famed painter Georgia O??Keeffe. With Stiegliz??s support, Dove produced what are known as the first purely abstract paintings to come out of America. Dove exhibited his works at Stieglitz??s ??291?? gallery in 1910 and in 1912 when he had his first one-man exhibition. The 1910 show ??Younger American Painters?? put Dove in the company of his old friend Maurer. Dove showed one painting, a large still life painted in France ??The Lobster??, which would be his last representational work. The 1912 show at the ??291??, Doves only one man showed a group of pastels that came to be know as ??Ten Commandments??, would be the first public display of nonillusionistic art by an American. In the two years since meeting Stieglitz Dove found himself as a leader in international art developments. From 1912 to 1946 Dove showed his work yearly at Stieglitz??s galleries, ??291??, ??intimate Gallery?? and ??An American Place.?? Dove??s works were based in natural forms and he referred to his form of abstraction as ??extraction,?? in essence, extracting the essential forms of a scene from a nature.
Nathaniel Hone
1718-1784 British Nathaniel Hone (24 April 1718 ?C 14 August 1784) was an Irish-born portrait and miniature painter, and one of the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768. The son of a Dublin-based Dutch merchant, Hone moved to England as a young man and, after marrying in 1742, eventually settled in London, by which time he had acquired a reputation as a portrait-painter. While his paintings were popular, his reputation was particularly enhanced by his skill at producing miniatures and enamels. He interrupted his time in London by spending two years (1750-1752) studying in Italy. As a portrait painter, several of his works are now held at the National Portrait Gallery in London. His sitters included magistrate Sir John Fielding and Methodist preacher John Wesley, and General Richard Wilford and Sir Levett Hanson in a double portrait.[2][3] He courted controversy in 1775 when his satirical picture "The Conjurer" was seen to attack the fashion for Italian Renaissance art and to ridicule Sir Joshua Reynolds (it also included a nude caricature of fellow Academician Angelica Kauffmann, later painted out by Hone), and was rejected by the Royal Academy. To show his reputation was undamaged, Hone organised a one-man retrospective in London ?C the first such solo exhibition of an artist??s work. His great-grand-nephew shared the same name and was also a notable Irish painter, known as Nathaniel Hone the Younger (1831-1917).