Browse Items (1279 total)

Prior to the 1800s, corn was planted by hand in hillocks or rows. Industrial technologies profoundly affected agriculture with many patent machines like this horse-drawn planter designed by Calvin Olds. In a language typical for other devices of the…

The Old North Church towers over a dismal, darkened street. A break of sunlight gradually illuminates the peaks of the buildings, sidewalk near the church, and the almost nonvisible side of the church’s steeple. There is a hazy quality to the…

The structures depicted here are in all likelihood those of the Theron Higgins Mill located alongside the Little River in Worthington, MA. They’re rendered in a somewhat telescopic view so as to compress a nearly impossible number of scenic elements:…

Cole's painting is very still and serene. There is virtually no movement--even the water is calm--and the air appears suffused with a hazy glow. The scene's imbalanced composition leaves a space for an implied sunrise or sunset at right. Cole's…

Sometimes called Low Point, Chelsea, NY is located north of the present-day Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. Dean’s etching shows the ruins of what had once been a thriving Hudson River industry, using mud from seasonal deposits. We see grass in the…

A vividly colored grouping avoids any appearance of symmetry or regularity of shape—even a painted plate isn’t circular. Likewise, mottling seems part of Preachen’s design as if to demonstrate that beauty can be irregular. Reds and oranges dominate…

Although it owes something to Cézanne’s post-impressionist fields of color, Rites’ painting often de-emphasizes formal shapes that would hold together such a composition. It takes a second look to discern a house, outbuilding, and dock upon a pond or…