Slide #10: Boatmen on the Missouri, 1846, George Caleb Bingham Putting it all Together: Although this painting shows an outdoor scene, it is not a landscape. Why not? (It is a genre painting because people and their activities are the main subjects.) Ask students to analyze this painting from each of the perspectives (functional, formal, historical) they have learned. What might be the function of this painting? This painting shows life along the Missouri River in 1846, a time in which this part of America was considered the "untamed" frontier As America expanded there was a growing audience for scenes of life in the newly settled territories, and this artist wanted to portray the positive side of frontier life. You might say that this work functioned as good public relations for the boatmen along the Missouri River. This painting also served as a master or original image for a printed engraving. During this period, engravings were reproduced from selected paintings and widely distributed across the country. As prints were much cheaper and more accessible than paintings, they provided many Americans with their only art experience and with their only opportunity to see images of different places. Can the students identify any formal elements in this painting? How has the artist created the illusion of depth? Where are the objects larger, brighter, more colorful, and more detailed? Where are the objects smaller, more grey and hazy? How do our eyes travel across the canvas? What is the water's role in the composition? (The water draws our eyes diagonally back into the scene.) Do you see any triangular forms in this composition and what function do they serve? (Triangles add balance and solidity.) Is any one character much larger or much more important than another in this painting and what does this visual information tell us? (This painting is considered by historians to be a democratic or egalitarian painting because it presents the proud boatmen as equal citizens.) What sort of statement was the artist making about the boatmen? (He probably wanted us to admire these boatmen as hardworking Americans.) What can this painting tell us about the time in which it was painted? (It can provide information about types of commerce, dress, and the lifestyle of men who sold wood to steamships along the Missouri River) What can we learn about the way in which commerce was conducted at the time? (Rivers were still the most important form of commercial transportation.)
SLIDE 10
LESSON PLAN #1
EXAMINING PAINTINGS FOR THEIR FUNCTIONAL, FORMAL, AND HISTORICAL CONTENT
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