The Civil War and American Art

The Civil War redefined America and forever changed American art. The conflict has been described as the second American Revolution, which wrested the founding precepts for this nation and threatened to topple our democracy. This exhibition considers the war's impact on American art and on the artists who experienced it firsthand. 

American landscape painting developed in tandem with an appreciation for the physical and metaphorical qualities of the American wilderness. As Americans began to see positive resonances in their own natural landscapes, they developed a wilderness aesthetic that linked America's prospects for her future with two things: the potential for progress through cultivating the raw landscape and the virtues found in the pristine aspects of those wild spaces. 

The Civil War provided American artists with an opportunity to witness the combat firsthand, either in uniform or as civilian observers. But what must have seemed a chance to make or enhance a reputation painting history as it unfolded turned out to be very difficult to achieve. 

Out of the morass of intertwined causes of the Civil War, two emerged as central governing ideas: the preservation of the Union and the abolition of slavery. Bringing the Confederate states back to the Union, rather than letting them secede to form a separate country, was the original reason given for fighting the war. But at the heart of the division between North and South was the unavoidable issue of slavery. 

Ending the war and returning home was harder and more complicated than anyone imagined. The readjustments of veterans, the options faced by millions of newly freed blacks, and the changes that had taken place on the home front all came into sharp relief. As they had during the war, artists looked for ways to make sense of the changes that were taking place around them, as veterans were reunited with loved ones who had weathered the war years at home.