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Roman Fish Market. Arch of Octavius

1858

Ancient Rome’s Portico of Octavia, built by Emperor Augustus in 23 BC, gradually fell into ruin and became a fish market in the twelfth century. When Albert Bierstadt traveled to Italy in 1857, Rome was defined largely by its historical roles in the Roman Empire and the Italian Renaissance. It was also the most important destination for wealthy tourists who made the Grand Tour of Europe to view the roots of Western civilization.

Americans like the man clutching his Rome guidebook and his wary wife considered themselves the heirs of ancient Greek and Roman ideals, emulating their democracies and architecture. Yet Bierstadt’s painting documents the decline and fall of ancient Rome’s monuments, while two famous antique statues, the Sleeping Endymion and the Barberini Faun, are reincarnated in a sleeping man and a street sweeper. The fish-scale and scallop-shell frame motifs offer a playful pun on Bierstadt’s subject.

Artist: Albert Bierstadt (American, born Germany, 1830–1902)
Title: Roman Fish Market. Arch of Octavius
Date: 1858
Place of Creation: New York
Object Type: Painting
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 27 5/8 x 37 3/8 in. (70.2 x 94.9 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd
Accession Number: 1979.7.12

New Bedford, Massachusetts, July 1–August 7, 1858, "New-Bedford Art Exhibition," cat. no. 50, p. 5.
New York, National Academy of Design, 1859, "Thirty-fourth Annual Exhibition," cat. no. 757.
Boston Athenaeum, 1858–1864, 1866, 1868–1873, "Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery."
Boston Athenaeum, 1858, "Thirty-Second Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 315.
Boston Athenaeum, 1859, "Thirty-Fourth Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 212.
New York, National Academy of Design, 1859, "Thirty-Fourth Annual Exhibition," cat. no. 757.
Boston Athenaeum, 1860, "Thirty-Fifth Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 112.
Boston Athenaeum, 1860, "Thirty-Sixth Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 125.
Boston Athenaeum, 1861, "Thirty-Seventh Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 91.
Boston Athenaeum,1862, "Thirty-Eighth Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 91.
Boston Athenaeum, 1863, "Thirty-Ninth Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 60.
Boston Athenaeum, 1864, "Fortieth Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 58.
{Possibly Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 1865.}
Boston Athenaeum, 1866, "Forty-Second Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery, cat. no. 299.
Boston Athenaeum, 1868, "Forty-Fourth Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 206.
Boston Athenaeum, 1869, "Forty-Fifth Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 200.
Boston Athenaeum, 1870, "Forty-Sixth Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 53.
Boston Athenaeum, 1871, "Forty-Seventh Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 42.
Boston Athenaeum, 1871–1872, "Forty-Eighth Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 43.
Boston Athenaeum, 1872, "Forty-Ninth Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 217.
Boston Athenaeum, 1873, "Fiftieth Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, at the Athenaeum Gallery," cat. no. 128.
Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts, April 22–May 24, 1879, "Contemporary Art," cat. no. 156, [lent by the Boston Athenaeum].
The Detroit Institute of Arts, December 28, 1944–January 28, 1945, "The World of the Romantic Artist, A Survey of American Culture from 1800–1875," text by E. P. Richardson, cat. no. 88, p. 34, repr. p. 30, [lent by the Boston Athenaeum, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston].
Norton, Massachusetts, Library Art Gallery, Wheaton College, November 9–December 5, 1945, "American Paintings," cat. no. 6, [lent by the Boston Athenaeum].
The Detroit Institute of Arts, January 12–February 18, 1951; Toledo, Ohio, The Toledo Museum of Art, March 4–March 25, 1951. "Travelers in Arcadia, American Artists in Italy, 1830–1875," Intro. by E. P. Richardson and Otto Wittmann, Jr. Cat. no. 4, pp. 16–17, repr. p. 17, [lent by the Boston Athenaeum].
New York, The American Academy of Arts and Letters and The National Institute of Arts and Letters, December 3–30, 1954, "The Great Decade in American Writing 1850–1860," cat. no. 102, p. 20, [lent by the Boston Athenaeum].
The Newark Museum, June 6–November 17, 1957, "Of Other Days, Scenes of Everyday Life," text by William H. Gerdts, no cat. nos., [lent by the Boston Athenaeum].
New York, Grolier Club, October 17–December 10, 1961, "The Italian Influence on American Literature," text by Clifton Waller Barrett. cat. no. 240, p. 57, repr., [lent by the Boston Athenaeum].
Wilmington, Delaware, Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, January 10–February 18, 1962, "American Painting 1857–1869," text by Wayne Craven, cat. no. 5, pp. 12, 13, 75, repr. p. 28., [lent by the Boston Athenaeum].
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, August 5–September 13, 1964, "Albert Bierstadt 1830–1902: a retrospective exhibition," intro. by Thomas W. Leavitt, cat. no. 8., [lent by the Boston Athenaeum].
{Possibly Manchester, Mass., Essex County Club, 1969.}
Fort Worth, Texas, Amon Carter Museum, January 27–March 19, 1972; Washington DC, Corcoran Gallery of Art, April 2–May 14, 1972; New Bedford, Massachusetts, The Whaling Museum, May 28–July 5 1972; New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, September 11–November 5, 1972; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, November 15, 1972–January 3, 1973. "ABierstadt," text by Gordon Hendricks, cat. no. 10, pp. 9, 10, 45, [lent by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts on deposit from the Library of the Boston Athenaeum].
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., October 27–November 27, 1976, "The American Experience," cat. no. 34, repr. (color) as The Arch of Octavius.
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (M. H. de Young Memorial Museum), August 3, 1985–January 6, 1986, "Albert Bierstadt: An observer of air, light and the feeling of a place," brochure and checklist by Shelley Mills.

The Brooklyn Museum, February 8–May 6, 1991; San Francisco, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, June 8–September 1, 1991; Washington DC, National Gallery of Art, November 3–February 17, 1992. "Albert Bierstadt: Art & Enterprise" text by Nancy K. Anderson and Linda S. Ferber. cat. no. 11, pp. 54, 69, 113, 123, 124, 135, 143, 257, repr. p. 135 (color).
Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts, September 16–December 13, 1992 Cleveland, Ohio, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 3 Feb.–11 Apr. 1993; Houston, Tex., Museum of Fine Arts, 23 May–8 Aug. 1993). "The Lure of Italy: American Artists and The Italian Experience 1760–1914," Text by Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. Cat. no. 28, p. 214, repr. 215 (color).
San Francisco, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (M. H. de Young Memorial Museum), The Rockefeller Collection of American Art at The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 25 June–13 Nov. 1994. Cat. by Marc Simpson with the assistance of Patricia Junker. Cat. no. 50, pp. 138–140, repr. p. 139 (color).
Mobile, Alabama, Gulf Coast Exploreum, July 2, 2002–January 5, 2003; Wilmington, Delaware, Winterthur Museum Garden and Library, October 11, 2003–February 1, 2004; Charleston, West Virginia, Charles M. Avampato Museum, February 28–May 30, 2004; Puebla Mexico, Museo Amparo, September 24, 2004–February 28, 2005. "American Accents: Visual Culture as History" [Spanish titled used in Mexico] Acentos Americanos: Cultura Visual Como Historia. Obras Maestras de Los Museos de Bellas Artes de San Francisco" Cat. by Daniell Cornell cat. no. 18, p. 90, repr. p. 117 (color). [*exh. organized by FAMSF but not shown there.]
Boston, The Boston Athenaeum, February 12–July 13, 2007, "Acquired Tastes: 200 Years of Collecting for the Boston Athenaeum," cat. by Stanley Ellis Cushing and David B. Dearinger, cat. no. 72, pp. 237–238, repr. p. 239 (color).
"Exhibition of Paintings" The [New Bedford] Evening Standard, 8 July 1958.
Gray, Barry, "Bierstadt, the Artist," The New York Leader 9, no. 3 (17 Jan. 1863): 1.
Tuckerman, Henry T., "Albert Bierstadt" The Galaxy 1 (15 Aug. 1866): 679.
Tuckerman, Henry T., Book of the Artists, American Artist Life Comprising Biographical and Critical Sketches of American Artists: Preceded by an Historical Account of the Rise & Progress of Art in America, (New York: G.P. Putnam and Son, 1867; reprinted New York: James F. Carr, 1967), p. 388, 393. Citations refer to the James F. Carr edition.
S. R. K. "Albert Bierstadt," Zeitschrift fur Bildende Kunst 5 (1870): p. 72.
Sheldon, G. W.,  American Painters: With One Hundred and Four Examples of Their Work Engraved on Wood. (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1881; reprinted, enlarged edition, New York: Benjamin Blom, Inc., 1972), p. 147.
Montgomery, Walter, ed., American Art and American Art Collections: Essays on Artistic Subjects by the Best Art Writer. . . . (Boston: E.W. Walker & Co., 1889; reprinted, New York: Garland, Inc., 1978), p. 578.
Neuhaus, Eugen, The History & Ideals of American Art, (Palo Alto, California: Stanford University Press, 1931), p. 82.
Hailey, Gene, ed., California Art Research, WPA Project 2874, 1st ser., vol. 2, (San Francisco, 1937), pp. 125–126.
Swan, Mabel Munson, The Athenaeum Gallery, 1827–1873: The Boston Athenaeum as an Early Patron of Art, (Boston: The Boston Athenaeum, 1940), p.131.
Draper, Benjamin Poff, "Albert Bierstadt." Art in America 28 (Apr. 1940): 68–69, as the Arch of Constantine.
Cowdrey, Mary Bartlett, National Academy of Design Exhibition Record, 1826–1860, 2 vols., (New York: The New-York Historical Society, 1943) vol. 1: p. 33.
Richardson, Edgar P., American Romantic Painting, (New York: E. Weyhe, 1944), p. 25, repr. fig. 201.Richardson, E.P., The World of the Romantic Artist: A Survey of American Culture from 1800 to 1875, exh. cat., (Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1944), p. 30–34, cat. no. 88.American Paintings, exh. cat. (Norton, Massachusetts: Wheaton College, 1945), cat. no. 6.Travelers in Arcadia: Americans Artists in Italy 1830–1860, exh. cat. (Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1951), p. 17, repr. cat. no. 4.
"Americans in Italy: U.S. Artists Repeat Migration of 1800s with Fresh Results." Life 33 (15 Sept. 1952): p. 91, repr. p. 91.The Great Decade in American Writing 1850–1860: Emerson, Hawthorne, Melville, Thoreau, Whitman: Books and Manuscripts: with Paintings by Friends and Contemporaries of the Authors, exh. cat. (New York City: The Academy of Arts and Letters, The National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1954), p. 20, cat. no. 102.
Scherer, Margaret R., Marvels of Ancient Rome, (New York and London: The Phaidon Press for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1956), repr. no. 47.Of Other Days: Scenes of Everyday Life, exh. cat. (Newark NJ: The Newark Museum, 1957), not paginated.
Whittmann, Otto, Jr., "Americans in Italy," College Art Journal 17, no. 3 (Spring, 1958): p. 289, repr. p. 286, fig. 2.
Testimonianze americane sull'Italia del Risorgimento, (Millan, 1961), repr. p. 305.Barrett, C. Waller, Italian Influence on American Literature, exh. cat., (New York: The Grolier Club, 1962), p. 57., cat. no. 240, repr.Craven, Wayne, American Paintings 1857–1869, exh. cat., (Newark, DE: University of Delaware, 1962), p. 12–13, repr. 28, cat. no. 5.
Trump, Richard Shafer, "Life and Works of Albert Bierstadt," (The Ohio State University: Thesis, 1963; Reprint. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1986), pp. 43, 59, 213 (no. 13), repr. 45, fig. 4.
Johnson, Allen, ed., Dictionary of American Bibliography, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1964), vol. 1: p. 254.Albert Bierstadt 1830–1902: a Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat., (Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1964), cat. no. 8.
Wright, Nathalia, American Novelists In Italy, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), repr.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,  American Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,  2 vols. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1969), vol. 1, p. 26, no. 105, p. 2, repr. 241, fig. 385.Hendricks, Gordon: ABierstadt, exh. cat., (Fort Worth TX: Among Carter Museum, 1972), p. 9–10, cat. no. 10.
Hendricks, Gordon, Albert Bierstadt: Painter of the American West, (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, 1974), pp. 57–58, 60, 64, 90, 94, 317, 320, CL-86, repr. 54, fig. 31, 55, fig. 32.The American Experience, exh. cat. (New York: Hirschl & Adler, 1976), cat. no. 34, repr. color.
Starr, Kevin, "Albert Bierstadt: The Civilizing Eye," Sierra: The Sierra Club Bulletin 62, no. 9 (Nov./Dec. 1977): p. 28.
Britsch, Ralph A., Bierstadt and Ludlow: Painter and Writer in the West, Charles E. Merrill Monographs, no. 5. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1980), p. 9.
Perkins, Robert F. Jr., and William J. Gavin III, comps. and eds, The Boston Athenaeum Art Exhibition Index, (Boston: The Library of the Boston Athenaeum, 1980), no. 315, 183.
Baigell, Matthew, Albert Bierstadt, (New York: Watson-Guptill Publishers, 1981), pp. 18, repr. 19, pl. 2.
Stebbins, Theodore E. Jr., Carol Troyen, and Trevor J. Fairbrother, A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting, 1760–1910, exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1983), p. 250 [not in exhibition].
Driscoll, John Paul, and John K. Howat, John Frederick Kensett, An American Master, exh. cat. (Worcester: Worcester Art Museum, 1985), repr. 31, fig. 11 [not in exhibition].Albert Bierstadt: An Observer of Air, Light, and the Feeling of a Place, exh. pamphlet, (San Francisco: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1985).
Miller, Lillian B., "'An Influence in the Air' Italian Art and American Taste in the Mid-Nineteenth Century," In The Italian Presence in American Art, 1760–1860, edited by Irma B. Jaffe, (New York: Fordham Univ. Press; Rome: Istituto Della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1989), repr. 27, fig. 16.
Simpson, Marc, Sally Mills, and Jennifer Saville, The American Canvas: Paintings from the Collection of The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1989), p. 120, repr. 13, fig. 1.Anderson, Nancy K., and Linda S. Ferber, Albert Bierstadt: Art & Enterprise, exh. cat., (New York: The Brooklyn Museum in association with New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1991), pp. 54, 69, 113, 123, 135, 143, 257.

"Artists who were influenced by Italy are shown at MFA," [Andover] Massachusetts Bay Antiques, Nov. 1992, repr. p. 3.
Stebbins, Theodore E. Jr., The Lure of Italy: American Artists and the Italian Experience 1760–1914, exh. cat., (Boston: The Museum of Fine Arts Boston in association with New York Harry N. Abrams publishers, 1992), p. 214, repr. color, p. 215, cat no. 28.
Simpson, Marc, "A Source of Pleasure and Satisfaction," USArt: An Exposition and Sale of American Art from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, Sale and exh. cat. (San Francisco: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1993), repr. 18 (color) [not in exhibition].
An Exposition and Sale of American Art from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, exh. cat. (San Francisco: James Barry Co., 1993), p. 18, fig. 17, repr.
Simpson, Marc, The Rockefeller Collection of American Art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, exh. cat. (San Francisco: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in association with New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc. Publishers, 1994), pp. 138–140 repr. color 139, cat. no. 50.Cornell, Daniell, American Accents: Visual Culture as History, exh. cat., (San Francisco: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2002), repr. p. 117. Burgard, Timothy Anglin, Daniell Cornell, Isabel Breskin, et al., Masterworks of American Painting at the de Young, (San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2005), cat. no. 30, pp. 113–116, 490–491, repr. 114, pl. 30 (color).Cushing, Stanley Ellis, and David B. Dearinger, Acquires Tastes: 200 Years of Collecting for the Boston Athenaeum, exh. cat. (Hanover and London: The University Press of New England, 2006), pp. 237–238, repr. color, 239, fig. 18, p. 90.
Boone, M. Elizabeth, Vistas de España: American Views of Art and Life in Spain, 1860–1914, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), pp. 56–57, repr. 56, fig. 2.13.
Wrigley, Richard, Roman Fever: Influence, Infection and the Image of Rome, 1700-1870, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2013), pp. 194, repr. 195, fig. 80 (color).
Dabakis, Melissa, A Sisterhood of Sculptors: American Artists in Nineteenth-Century Rome, (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2014), pp. 94–96, 108, repr. p. 95.O' Donnell, David, ed., Civilisation and Nineteenth Century Art: A European Concept in the Global Context, (Manchester UK: Manchester University Press, 2016), repr. p. 92, fig.4.1.
O'Donnell, C. Oliver, "Peirce, Bierstadt, and the Topographic Imagination in the Nineteenth-Century North America," The Art Bulletin, June 2021, Vol. 103, No. 2, pp. 104–128.

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