Girlhood in19th Century American Art - Research Paper Example

al backgrounds, ages, and other demographic variables who illustrate different features and aspects of girlhood that condenses the aspect of beauty in the context of the nineteenth century America. Beauty, culture, and history are presented in multiple dimensions that effectively portray the subtle aesthetics and meanings as understood within the specific context. A huge travelling exhibition, “Angels and Tomboys: Girlhood in 19th century American art” includes eighty prints, paintings, photographs, sculptures, and texts depicting the concepts of 19th century girlhood.

The exhibitions interprets the countless ways that artists at this time delineated, artistically, the perception of people of how girls were and ought to be and how the artist aided in the modeling the social and artistic perception of being a female at that time. It also intended to show what adults hoped for the future of their daughters and what they feared most. Indeed, it includes the works of an era when females were just beginning to appear in art, featuring the works of Winslow Homer, Thomas Wakins, William Merritt Chase, Cecilia Beaux and much more.

The artwork portrays economic and social class and race. It is apparent how the civil war affects the artwork which is shown later in the exhibition. It expresses how perceptions of women were changing along with the education and work conditions. Throughout the 19th century, when thinking about a young woman or girl, the first thoughts would be angelic, sweet, innocent and domestic. This exhibition at The Newark Museum had a different take on this issue. It displays significantly different views than the “norm” just previously describes of girlhood.

The first text you would see entering the exhibit is a quote from James’s novella Daisy Miller (1878), where Daisy is portrayed as an ”inscrutable combination of audacity and innocence”. This is evident in the name of the exhibit. It is evident how much our perceptions have changed