The Art of the Everyday: American Genre Painting

American genre paintings depict scenes of daily life. Highlighting over 30 works from Fenimore Art Museum’s collection, this exhibition showcases this wide-ranging artistic movement that rose in popularity during the first half of the 19th century when America was struggling to find a national identity. Artists like William Sidney Mount, E. L. Henry, Eastman Johnson, and Thomas Waterman Wood addressed current and complex issues in their paintings while depicting relationships between the various communities living in the budding nation. These artists and their paintings became touchstones in American genre painting, inspiring other artists, while documenting the diverse lives of Americans in the years leading up to and after the Civil War.

Image:
Eel Spearing at Setauket, 1845, William Sidney Mount (1807 – 1868), oil on canvas. Collection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark. Photograph by Richard Walker. N0395.1955.