Exhibition

American Made: Selections from The Huntington’s Early American Art Collections

Name: American Made: Selections from The Huntington’s Early American Art Collections | The Huntington
Location: The Huntington

The 25 works on view in "American Made," ranging in date from 1700 to 1868, will be familiar to many visitors who have enjoyed them in the Scott Gallery in the past. Among them are paintings by the most influential American artists of the period, such as Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, and Frederick Edwin Church, along with representative pieces of furniture, silver, and sculpture.

Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), Chimborazo, 1864, oil on canvas, 48 × 84 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

John Singleton Copley (1738–1815), The Western Brothers, 1783, oil on canvas, 49 1/2 × 61 3/4 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Asher Brown Durand (1796–1886), Strawberrying, 1854, oil on canvas, 34 × 51 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Ralph Earl (1751–1801), Mrs. Elijah Boardman and her Son, William Whiting Boardman, ca. 1796, oil on canvas, 85 1/4 × 56 1/2 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Henry Kirke Brown (1814–1886), Filatrice, 1850, bronze, 20 × 12 × 7 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Photography © 2014 Fredrik Nilsen.

Samuel Casey (1723–1773), Coffeepot, ca. 1760, silver, 10 × 9 1/4 × 4 1/4 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, gift of Peter Emerson Marble. Photography © 2014 Fredrik Nilsen.

Charles Honoré Lannuier (1779–1819), Card table, 1810–20, mahogany and rosewood veneer with brass inlay and gilding, 30 × 35 3/4 × 17 5/8 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Photography © 2014 Fredrik Nilsen.

Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827), George Washington, after 1779, oil on canvas, 78 × 43 1/2 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Ammi Phillips (1788–1865), Hannah Bull Thompson, 1824, oil on canvas, 30 × 24 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Severin Roesen (ca. 1815–ca.1872), Still Life with Flowers and Bird's Nest, after 1860, oil on panel, 15 × 20 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

John Rogers (1829–1904), Council of War, 1868, painted plaster, height of 24 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Photography © 2014 Fredrik Nilsen.

Unknown, High Chest of Drawers, ca. 1750–75, wood (cherry and white pine), 84 × 37 1/4 × 20 1/2 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Photography © 2014 Fredrik Nilsen.

The American art collections are growing, and the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art are expanding to make room for new acquisitions and to improve the visitor experience. While several rooms are closed this fall during renovations, curators have taken the opportunity to spotlight some of the earliest works in the collection in a temporary installation in the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery. “American Made: Selections from The Huntington’s Early American Art Collections” opens Sept. 5 and continues through Jan. 5, 2016, focusing on masterworks from the colonial period through the Civil War.

The Huntington’s American art collections were established three decades ago with a gift of 50 paintings from the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation. Today the collections comprise more than 12,000 objects, making The Huntington one of the finest repositories of American art in the country.

The 25 works on view in “American Made,” ranging in date from 1700 to 1868, will be familiar to many visitors who have enjoyed them in the Scott Gallery in the past. Among them are paintings by the most influential American artists of the period, such as Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, and Frederick Edwin Church, along with representative pieces of furniture, silver, and sculpture.

While these early works will be displayed in the Boone Gallery temporarily, several key rooms remain open in the Scott Galleries, where visitors can continue to see the permanent installation of paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts from later periods. Favorites such as Edward Hopper’s The Long Leg, Mary Cassatt’s Breakfast in Bed, and Harriet Hosmer’s monumental marble sculpture Zenobia in Chains, among others, are on view throughout the renovations.