William Merritt Chase was an American painter who thrived during America’s Gilded Age.
He is best known for his portraits and landscapes in the impressionist “en plein air” (painted outdoors) style.
He captured the domestic comforts of his own family and the blissful lifestyle of some of the wealthy.
While working in the family business, Chase showed an early talent for art, studying under local, self-taught artists in Indianapolis, who urged him to further his studies at the National Academy in New York.
Declining family fortunes cut short his training and he left New York to join his family in St Louis—working to help support them, but continuing his art.
Catching the eye of wealthy St Louis art collectors, Chase was sent on an expense-paid trip to Europe in exchange for some of his paintings and help in procuring others for their collections.
As one of the finest centers for art training in Europe, Chase joined the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, where his figurative and impressionist loose brushwork began to shine.
Further travels in Italy rounded out his skills and he returned to the United States as one of a new wave of highly accomplished European-trained artists.
American statesman Samuel Greene Wheeler Benjamin once said of Chase’s style,
A noble sense of color is perceptible in all his works, whether in the subtle elusive tints of flesh, or in the powerful rendering of a mass of color. In the painting of a portrait he endeavors, sometimes very successfully, to seize character
Whether relaxing in the country, strolling in the park, playing with children at the beach, boating on a summer afternoon or simply contemplating life, his paintings show us a slice of American life at a beautiful time. A time tinted with gold. A Gilded Age.
The Impressionist painter Frank Myers Boggs loved France.
He loved the quays and monuments along the Seine in Paris. He loved the old harbor and the pretty townhouses in Honfleur. He loved the marina, the fish market, the stepped streets, and the tranquil squares of Marseille.
Myers Boggs was one of several young American artists who crossed the stormy seas of the North Atlantic in the 19th century to live, breathe, and paint the “old world” that is France.
He used a somber tonal palette and restrained impressionist technique to capture marine, harbor, and street scenes.
If you love moody skies, if you love the way golden afternoon light falls on old stone buildings, if you love the pale light of misty mornings, the stillness of reflections and cities filled with spires, then you will love the work of Frank Myers Boggs.
Here are 30 Impressionist paintings to feed your soul today.
German-born American artist Albert Bierstadt (1830 – 1902) was best known for his paintings of the American West.
A member of the mid 19th-century American art movement known as the Hudson River School, he focused on romantic landscapes.
Traveling westward with land surveyors and authors, he captured sketches to develop into large-scale paintings back at his New York studio.
In the 1860’s he became a member of the much-vaunted National Academy—an honorary association of American artists. He received medals as he traveled extensively in Europe and even had a private reception with Queen Victoria.
Demand for his work was so high that by 1865 his paintings were fetching $10,000 – $25,000 (worth approx $280,000 – $700,000 today)
When in 1872, his drawings of Yellowstone convinced Congress to pass the Yellowstone Park Bill, he was firmly established as the preeminent painter of the American West.
Bierstadt used light to glorify the romance of sweeping landscapes, depicting the untamed West as a land full of promise, of Manifest Destiny, and the American Dream.
At one time, especially between 1815 and 1915, the horse and buggy was the primary mode of short-distance transportation in America.
Horsemanship was largely confined to wealthy landowners, western pioneers, and the military.
But as long as there were rudimentary roadways, the low skill requirement of horse and buggy gave freedom of mobility to thousands more.
Until Henry Ford made automobiles affordable for the working class, horse-drawn buggies were the most common means of getting around towns and surrounding countryside.
Edward Lamson Henry (1841 – 1919) was an American painter who studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He moved to Paris at the age of 19 — a time of Claude Monet, Pierre-August Renoir, and Alfred Sisley.
His great attention to detail and membership of the New York Historical Society won him admiration from contemporaries who viewed his work as authentic historical reconstructions.
Who better to show us American life in the time of the horse and buggy than Edward Lamson Henry. To enhance the atmosphere of these beautiful paintings, optionally play the music.
Whether a quaint novelty ride around Central Park or a touch of Cinderella magic to a storybook wedding, we can still experience the joys of a horse and buggy ride today.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919), or “TR” as he’s affectionately called, was the 26th President of the United States and a leading force of the Progressive Era. He was also an author, explorer, soldier, naturalist, and reformer.
Although sickly as a child, suffering debilitating asthma, he regained health through a strenuous lifestyle. His high-spirited personality, broad range of interests, and “cowboy” persona made him world-famous.
Ranked by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents, his face adorns Mount Rushmore alongside Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln.
Here are six of TR’s best-known quotes that helped make him an icon.
1. Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground
Dream big, but keep it grounded in reality. Roosevelt was a Republican Progressive with high ideals. Biographer H. W. Brands notes, “Even his friends occasionally wondered whether there wasn’t any custom or practice too minor for him to try to regulate, update or otherwise improve.”
But Roosevelt kept his feet firmly planted on the ground by making conservation a top priority. He established national parks, forests, and monuments in order to preserve the nation’s natural wonders.
He reached for the stars but never got too big for his boots.
2. Believe you can and you’re halfway there
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According to the Mayo Clinic, low self-esteem can be harmful to virtually all areas of our lives, including relationships, career, and health.
Teddy Roosevelt overcame severe asthma as a sickly child to become the very model of masculine health. His secret? Self-belief.
No matter how disadvantaged we may think we are, positive self-belief can transform our lives.
One look at the conviction in TRs eyes gives me goosebumps—that’s the look of self-belief.
3. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are
At the outbreak of war with Spain in 1898, the US Army was much smaller than it had been during the Civil War. President McKinley called upon volunteers to form a regiment initially called “Wood’s Weary Walkers” after commander Colonel Leonard Wood. Although they were supposed to be cavalry, they had to make do with fighting on foot.
Second in command was Theodore Roosevelt who later took charge and renamed his volunteers the “Rough Riders”.
In the Battle of San Juan of the Spanish–American War, the Rough Riders gained notoriety for doing what they could, with what they had, where they were.
On the day of the big fight I had to ask my men to do a deed that European military writers consider utterly impossible of performance, that is, to attack over open ground an unshaken infantry armed with the best modern repeating rifles behind a formidable system of entrenchments. The only way to get them to do it in the way it had to be done was to lead them myself.
4. Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care
This is quite possibly the most powerful of TRs quotes because of the breadth and depth of its implications.
Whether you’re leading a team or organization, a road-warrior salesperson, a customer service agent, a medical practitioner, a marketing executive … whatever you do in life, the same wisdom applies—nobody really cares what you say until they believe how much you care.
5. Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far
The exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis.
That’s how Roosevelt described his brand of foreign policy that became known as “Big Stick ideology”.
He used military muscle several times throughout his two terms with a more subtle touch to complement his diplomatic policies. But he also used Big Stick ideology in other contexts, with an emphasis on diplomacy.
In 1902, 140,000 miners went on strike, wanting higher pay, shorter work hours, and better housing.
The prospect of a coal shortage posed a serious threat to the fragile economy of the time. But instead of sending in the military as was the norm before Roosevelt, he hosted a meeting in the White House involving mining union representatives and mining company leaders.
When the miners voted to continue with the strike, Roosevelt used the military, not for force, but to run the mines in the “public interest”.
The mining companies realized they were losing profits, and so gave in to the miners’ demands.
Roosevelt could wield just as much power with a pen as he could with a sword.
The pen is mightier than the swordEdward Bulwer-Lytton
6. Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing
We spend most of our waking hours at work and our jobs can influence our lives beyond the workplace. The type of work we do is part of our identity and can reflect what’s important to us.
Research by Brent D. Rosso, PhD, showed that when people find meaning in their work, it increases motivation, engagement, empowerment, career development, job satisfaction, individual performance and personal fulfillment—and also decreases absenteeism and stress (Research in Organizational Behavior, 2010).
Suggestions for Further Reading
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