KATHLEEN M. DILLON
Painters and Patrons: The Fine Arts in
Cincinnati, 1820-1860
In short, we should foster western
genius, encourage western writers, pa-
tronize western publishers, augment the
number of western readers and cre-
ate a western heart.1
-Daniel Drake, 1833
Dr. Daniel Drake, a Cincinnati physician
and public benefactor,
made his plea for a distinctly western
culture at a gathering of Ohio
and Kentucky teachers in 1833. If the
arts received public support,
Drake believed, Cincinnati and the West
would lead the nation by
their example of cultural unity.2 In
Drake's eyes, the West could
achieve everything-commerce, wealth,
moral education, and gen-
ius. Culture, the "western
heart," would unify and sanctify all as-
pects of Cincinnati's growth.
As Drake evidenced in this and other
writings, even leaders of
frontier towns concerned themselves with
aspects of city life that
went beyond the income, trade, and
population statistics. One might
expect Cincinnati writers in the
antebellum period to praise com-
merce and to predict that Cincinnati
would grow richer than any oth-
er American city, since economic growth
was the basis for Cincinna-
ti's overall growth. Drake and others'
interests in the city's cultural
life before the Civil War is more
surprising, however, since one associ-
ates frontier boomtowns more often with
expanding commerce than
with artists. Then as now, however, the
conditions that enable the
arts to flourish add a dimension to the
quality of city life that lies be-
yond economic prosperity. Support of the
arts is one symbol of urban
maturity, and another area of
competition between East and West.
Kathleen M. Dillon is a graduate of Yale
University and is currently studying law at
Cornell University.
1. Daniel Drake, Remarks on the
Importance of Promoting Literary and Social Con-
cert, (Louisville, 1833), 26.
2. Ibid. For more information on
Cincinnati's role as a frontier city, see Richard
Wade's The Urban Frontier, (Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1959), and John Jakle's Im-
ages of the Ohio Valley (New York, 1977).
8 OHIO HISTORY
Cincinnati in 1820 differed dramatically
from the city in 1860. As
the town publicists pointed out,
Cincinnati in 1820 was only a few
years beyond log cabins and Indian
battles. In the forty years after
1820, pork processing, beer brewing, and
a transportation network of
the Ohio River, railroad and Miami canal
fueled fast-paced economic
growth. Cincinnati became known as the
"Queen City" and bur-
geoned in population from less than
20,000 in 1820 to over 160,000 in
1860. By 1850, it was the sixth largest
American city after New York,
Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New
Orleans, and the largest
city in the trans-Appalachian West. With
the possible exception of
Lexington, Cincinnati was the center of
artistic activity in the Ohio
Valley before the Civil War.
Thirty years after Drake, John
Frankenstein, one of Cincinnati's
most talented painters, left the city in
disgust. Cincinnati by 1860
had fallen far short of Drake's vision
of promoting public support for
the fine arts. The only art buyers,
Frankenstein complained, were
wealthy businessmen who stifled artists'
creativity by commissioning
portraits of themselves. Cincinnatians
had neither taste nor respect
for serious painting, Frankenstein
continued: "Art is not valued at a
song." He saw talented local
artists painting "anomalies" and "inani-
ties."3 These artists
were heirs to Drake's optimistic vision of the
West, but for them it was a myth.
Frankenstein tried to call attention
to the Cincinnati artist's predicament
in his verse satire; American
Art: Its Awful Attitude. Even frustrated artists
Breathed our buoyant, free expanding
air,
In Europe too, drew inspiration there-
Yet See, what are they? something's
wrong somewhere!4
Frankenstein felt poor patronage drove
him out of Cincinnati-the
same city Daniel Drake had pledged would
support the arts. While
Drake had believed that Cincinnati would
surpass the eastern cities
in both wealth and culture, Frankenstein
denounced it as hopelessly
provincial.
I. The 1820s and 30s: A Regional
Culture
To understand Frankenstein's criticism
of the Cincinnati art scene,
one must examine basic changes in
dominant American attitudes to-
ward the fine arts. Daniel Drake's
writings reflected early nineteenth-
3. John Frankenstein, American Art:
Its Awful Attitude, (Cincinnati, 1864), 94, 95.
4. Ibid.
Painters and Patrons 9
century republicanism and sense of
American mission. Artistic atti-
tudes by the Civil War era, however,
came to embrace European
training and the value of the fine arts.
Cincinnati in the 1860s still in-
fluenced by Drake's pedagogical approach
to art, could not keep
pace with the cultural sophistication of
the East.
In the new American republic of the
late-eighteenth and early-
nineteenth centuries, supporters of the
Revolution viewed art as un-
necessary in a democracy and possibly
dangerous. As historian Neil
Harris has written, "Art, like
government, was a badge of shame," a
sign of superfluous wealth,
undisciplined energies, and unsatisfied
cravings.5
By 1830, art was a more accepted form of
expression, but the artis-
tic profession was still not supported.
While most other American in-
stitutions developed with deliberately
democratic principles, the fine
arts were left mainly to private
patronage by the wealthy. Without a
tradition of fine arts behind them,
American painting and sculpture
could not serve their own purposes, but
served the cause of moral in-
struction. Artists took on a didactic
role that was reflected in Cincin-
nati in Daniel Drake's call for a moral,
unifying culture.
American art was, in theory,
anti-European. While writers por-
trayed Europe as the home of tyrants and
corruption, they de-
scribed the United States as the
embodiment of freedom and de-
mocracy. Americans preserved the
"notion of unprecedentedness, of
utterly new beginnings"6 that
resisted European influence. American
art was supposed to reflect American
democracy-for the people, in
the sense of easily understood moral
lessons, and by the people, in
the sense of anyone becoming an artist.
While many writers called for an
American art separate from Eu-
rope, Daniel Drake's background pushed
him further to support a
western American culture distinct from
that of the East. Drake
(1785-1852) lived nearly all his life in
the West. While still an infant,
he moved with his family to Kentucky,
then a frontier region across
the Ohio River from fledgling
Cincinnati. At the age of fifteen he
moved to the city and studied medicine
with a local physician.
Drake went on to become the
"Physician to the West," founding
medical facilities and schools in the
Cincinnati-Lexington area.7 Al-
though medicine was his profession,
Drake's activities extended into
5. Neil Harris, The Artist in
American Society, 1790-1860, (New York, 1966), viii.
6. Fred Somkin, Unquiet Eagle, (Ithaca,
1967), 57.
7. Emmet F. Horine, Daniel Drake,
1785-1852: Pioneer Physician in the Midwest,
(Philadelphia, 1961), 79.
10 OHIO HISTORY
every aspect of civic life-so much so
that one author called him
Cincinnati's "one-man chamber of
commerce."8 His 1815 book, Pic-
ture of Cincinnati, established Drake's reputation both as Cincinna-
ti's first important booster and as a
first-rate mind. Drake held the in-
fluential position in Cincinnati of
resident intellectual and civic leader.
Harriet Martineau, a British
abolitionist who visited the United
States in 1835, was impressed with Drake
above all other Cincinnati-
ans, calling him "a complete and
favourable specimen of a Western-
er.9 It is safe to consider
Drake one of the leading exponents of elite
views in Cincinnati before 1840.
Drake's writings covered a variety of
subjects, but nearly all ex-
pressed his desire to advance the West.
Defining culture and the re-
gion's potential consumed twenty years
of Drake's life. For him, cul-
ture was a crucial tool in fulfilling
the promise of the West. In An
Address to the People of the Western
Country (1818), young Drake saw
Cincinnati's potential in commercial
wealth and had a broad view of
culture, including scientific exhibits,
the arts, and education. The
Address was a plea for donations to the newly founded Western
Mu-
seum, "a society for the
collection, preservation, exhibition and illus-
tration of natural and artificial
curiosities, particularly those of the
Western Country." Drake's interest in science influenced the Muse-
um's collection, but of "first and
greatest importance," he collected
minerals to discover their commercial
uses.10 By developing its natu-
ral resources, Cincinnati could attract
more residents and business.
In 1818, at the age of 33, Drake's idea
of urban culture focused on sci-
entific collections and the increase of
western wealth.
Interestingly enough, however, Drake had
considered opening a
painting gallery instead of the Western
Museum. He wanted to "offer
the lovers and cultivators of the fine
arts a few of those models
which are absolutely necessary to the
gratification and improvement
of their taste."11 His decision to
collect minerals instead of canvases
was not based on ignorance, but on his
view of what was most feasi-
ble and appropriate for Cincinnati in
1818. The arts in Cincinnati at
that time were on a rudimentary level
that would take years to ad-
vance. An art gallery might begin to
educate the public and artists,
but it would not spur Cincinnati's
growth the way developing natural
8. Ohio Writer's Project, Cincinnati:
A Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors,
(Cincinnati, 1943), 20.
9. Harriet Martineau, Retrospect of
Western Travel, (London, 1838), 223.
10. Daniel Drake, An Address to the
People of the Western Country, (Cincinnati,
1818), p. 1.
11. Ibid., 2.
Painters and Patrons 11
resources would. Drake kept his
patriotic allegience to the West by
focusing his public efforts on what was
indigenous to the Ohio
Valley.
One of Drake's most extensive
statements on the potential role of
culture in the West was his Remarks
on the Importance of Promoting
Literary and Social Concert, written in 1833 when he was 48. While
much of Drake's motivation for a
regional, distinctly western culture
stemmed from personal pride in his
home, he also believed that a
culturally unified West would save the
republic from splintering and
total disintegration. As Drake saw the
problem, the competing pow-
ers of the state and Union were too
complex and with a sectional
dispute over slavery rising in the
United States, the Union was "lia-
ble to decomposition." Drake
claimed that "such a catastrophe is
spoken of by all, and apprehended by
many." The Mississippi Val-
ley, if united itself, however, could
serve as an anchor for the rest of
the nation. Considering the region's
growing economy and natural
transportation advantages, Drake wrote,
the "cement of future adhe-
sion among all the states exudes . . .
from the soil of the West."12
With tremendous optimism, Drake
predicted that Cincinnati and the
West would surpass all other areas of
the nation. Culture, the "west-
ern heart," became the regional
unifier in Drake's theory.
Drake considered uniting the West
"a holy task of patriotism" and
proposed specific steps to spread a
common western culture: 1) hold
local literary meetings, 2) hold
conventions "in the central cities" for
discussion among academics and
professionals, 3) identify the moral
needs of the community and ways to fill
them, 4) exchange educa-
tional methods and materials, and 5)
promote correspondence among
the Mississippi Valley colleges. 3
The suggestion for city conventions
fitted well with Drake's promotion of
Cincinnati; gatherings could be
held, and money generated in his city.
Overall, the five points illus-
trated Drake's concern for group unity
through moral education. In
addition to the five suggestions in his
Remarks, Drake also promoted
public education as a means of unifying
western culture. Harriet
Martineau reported in 1835 that Drake
considered the success of the
"common schools" he helped
found to be his greatest achieve-
ment.14 Overall, Drake's
proposals were practical, immediate at-
tempts to stimulate culture for all
members of society.
12. Daniel Drake, Remarks on the
Importance of Promoting Literary and Social Con-
cert, (Louisville, 1833), 7, 16.
13. Ibid., 17, 25.
14. Martineau, 223.
12 OHIO HISTORY
Drake supported the fine arts and
individual artists in his private
life, however. In 1820, for example, he
hired taxidermist and bird
watcher John James Audubon, then
struggling as a drawing tutor in
Cincinnati, to mount wildlife
exhibitions in the Western Museum for
$125 a month. Audubon also painted
display cases to resemble the
animals' natural habitat.15 In
addition to work at the museum, Drake
arranged at least four portrait
commissions for Audubon. By the time
Audubon left Cincinnati in 1821, he and
Drake, both the same age,
had become close friends.
Another painter Drake took an interest
in was Aaron H. Corwine
(1802-1830). Corwine came to Cincinnati
in 1817 at the age of 15. By
the following year the editor of the
Cincinnati Inquistor-Advertiser
praised his "ingenious and
promising youth" and urged Cincinnati's
wealthy citizens to support him.16 Drake
responded with more than
money. To enable Corwine to develop his
artistic talents with more
advanced training than Cincinnati
offered. Drake lined up a number
of portrait commissions for him in
Cincinnati for which the buyers
paid in advance. Corwine then used the
cash to study in Philadel-
phia with painter Thomas Sully.17 After
his time in the East, Cor-
wine returned to Cincinnati, completed
his commissions, and worked
on other paintings-including a portrait
of Andrew Jackson, painted
during Jackson's ten-day visit to
Cincinnati in 1825.18 Corwine again
left the Queen City, this time for
Europe. Unfortunately, he became
ill on his return trip and died in 1830
at the age of 28.19
Western culture, by Drake's definition,
did not necessarily empha-
size the fine arts. Although Drake respected
professional painters, as
shown by his generosity to Audubon and
Corwine, his primary obli-
gation as he saw it was to educate the
citizens of the West and secure
their future prosperity. While Drake
described Cincinnati and the
West as a "green and growing"
sapling, with the potential to lead the
world,20 the fine arts, were
a consideration but not a top priority in
his vision.
Corwine and Audubon's financial support
revealed a great deal
about Cincinnati artists' experience in
Cincinnati before 1830. Both
15. Ophia D. Smith, "A Survey of
Artists in Cincinnati, 1789-1830," Bulletin of the
Cincinnati Historical Society, XXV,
(January, 1967), 12.
16. Cincinnati, Inquirer-Advertiser, August
11, 1818, quoted by Robert C. Vitz,
"Seventy Years of Cincinnati Art:
1790-1860," Bulletin of The Cincinnati Historical So-
ciety, XXV (January, 1967), 52.
17. Vitz, 52.
18. Smith, 11-12.
19. Vitz, 53.
20. Martineau, 236.
Painters and Patrons 13
Corwine and Audubon relied on personal
connections to garner com-
missions, in this case from Daniel
Drake. Although drawing tutors
advertised in local newspapers for
business, professional painters
more often depended on the praise of
the local elite, whether in the
papers or by word of mouth. What work
artists managed to find was
almost exclusively in portraiture.
While London patronized the Royal
Academy painters and exhibitions in all
artistic genres, Cincinnati
civic leaders like Drake directed
public support to scientific and com-
mercial ventures like the Western
Museum.
Drake's view was understandable, given
the conditions of Cincin-
nati from 1820 to 1830. There were not
enough trained artists to paint
higher quality works, and not enough
buyers to sustain a varied art
market. The early Ohio artist was
usually entirely self-taught and
itinerant. James H. Beard, a painter,
grew up in the interior farmlands
of Ohio, isolated from all art except
for occasional "daubs" of travel-
ing painters.21 After
practicing with homemade paints, Beard set off
to find fame and fortune in the nearest
city, Cincinnati. Beard's expe-
rience was fairly common. John and
Godfrey Frankenstein grew up in
Springfield, Ohio, in a frontier
family. Hiram Powers, Cincinnati's
famed sculptor, moved with his family
from Vermont to Ohio in 1803.
Lilly Martin Spencer, one of the few
female artists in Cincinnati, grew
up in Marietta, an older but smaller
town on the Ohio River. For
small-town youth in the
Trans-Appalachian West, Cincinnati lured
untrained artists from the Ohio Valley,
just as the East and Europe
drew Aaron Corwine and later many more
artists away from Cincin-
nati.
In some cases, however,
European-trained artists came to Cincinna-
ti. Frederick Eckstein, who arrived in 1826 from
Germany, has been
hailed as the "Father of
Cincinnati Art" by historians because he
opened the first art school teaching
sophisticated European tech-
niques. Eckstein had studied painting
and sculpture in Germany
where his grandfather had been a court
painter.22 Eckstein taught
some of the artists wandering in from
the hinterland, most notably
sculptor Hiram Powers and painter Miner
Kellog. Eckstein's "acade-
my" was rudimentary, however. It
consisted of one room, rented two
nights a week, for sketching and
painting sessions. Worse still, Eck-
stein's school and fledgling museum
failed within a year.23 Even
21. Drake, Remarks, 26.
22. Smith.
23. Vitz, 50-55.
14 OHIO HISTORY
when well-trained artists practiced in
Cincinnati, they did not always
find success.
The few artists in the city all knew and
taught each other. When
the French painter Auguste Hervieu
arrived in Cincinnati in 1828 with
the British traveler Frances Trollope,
Eckstein employed him imme-
diately as assistant instructor and
started classes once again. Hervieu
soon resigned in order to paint
privately.24 Since commissions in
Cincinnati were scarce, however, Hervieu
teamed up with Hiram
Powers for practice. Powers sculpted
Hervieu while Hervieu painted
Powers. The two exchanged ideas and
argued over style during their
reciprocal sittings,25 in a
manner that typified artists' interaction in
Cincinnati before 1830. Hervieu sought
always to "capture the ex-
pression" of his subject and chided
Powers for constantly measuring
his sculpture for exact likeness.
Nevertheless, Powers' precision ap-
parently influenced Hervieu. In 1830,
two years after their first meet-
ing, Hervieu unveiled his masterwork,
"The Landing of General La-
fayette at Cincinnati," which was
admired most for its more than
fifty recognizable portraits.26
Cincinnati artists continued to exchange
ideas, but their ability to
make a living as professional painters
and sculptors remained limited
in the 1830s. Hervieu earned money from
"The Landing of Lafay-
ette" by taking it from Cincinnati
to New York for exhibition. Anoth-
er artist, Miner Kellog, complained in
1830 that the scarcity of materi-
als, dealers, and paintings to study
forced many artists to leave the
Queen City.27 Hervieu's
friend Powers molded mechanical figures
for "The Infernal Regions," a
model of hell at Dorfueille's Cincinnati
Wax Museum.28 Cincinnati
artists found very few outlets for their
paintings and sculptures as serious art
work.
Without support from public or private
fine art institutions, Cincin-
nati artists continued to rely on
private patronage by the local elite for
commissions. In frontier towns like
Cincinnati in the 1830s only a
handful of wealthy men bought local
artists' works. Nicholas Long-
worth (1782-1863), who had amassed a
huge fortune in Cincinnati
24. Smith, 17.
25. Louis L. Tucker, "Hiram Powers
and Cincinnati," Bulletin of The Cincinnati His-
torical Society, XXV (January, 1967),
25.
26. Smith, 17.
27. Thomas B. Brumbaugh, ed.,
introduction to "A New Letter of Hiram Powers,"
The Ohio Historical Quarterly, 65 (October, 1956), 399.
28. Miner Kilbourne Kellogg Scrapbook,
Archives of American Art, microfilm 986,
frame 1128, cited by Dennis Carter in The
Golden Age: Cincinnati Painters of the 19th
Century, (Cincinnati, 1979).
Painters and Patrons
15
real estate, was the best-known patron.
Longworth was a small man,
always dressed in black, with shaggy
eyebrows and sharp eyes that
Cincinnati painter Worthington
Whittredge described as startling.29
Lilly Martin Spencer, another local
painter, described her first im-
pression of Longworth:
.... a little bit of an ugly man came in
(much shorter than father) ... he
came forward and, taking my hand and squeezing hard, he
looked at me
with a keen, earnest gaze . . . His
manners are extremely rough and almost
coarse, but his shrewd eyes and plain
manner hide a man of very strong
mind and high and generous heart. 30
Longworth usually showed his generosity
by writing letters of intro-
duction for Cincinnati's traveling
artists or financing their training in
New York or Europe. His favorite artist,
Hiram Powers, thanked God
and Longworth for his success after
thirty years as a sculptor.31
Other Cincinnatians, such as Peyton
Symmes, Charles Stetson,
and John P. Foote, also collected
paintings and sculptures, often
done by local artists. Cincinnati
artists found that the surest road to
professional success was to be
"adopted" by one of the city's pa-
trons. Local patrons often found
favorites among Cincinnati artists
and bought almost exclusively from them.
While Longworth took a
special interest in Powers, Charles
Stetson patronized painter James
H. Beard, purchasing at least four
paintings from him, more than
from
any other local artist.32 Stetson's private collection of
over
twenty-five paintings was one of the
largest in Cincinnati.
Public exhibition space in Cincinnati
was extremely limited most of
the antebellum period. Although Drake occasionally
displayed
paintings for the Western Museum, most
art was shown in private
homes of the elite. Judge Jacob Burnet
wrote to Hiram Powers in 1843
that Longworth's home was "crowded
with visitors for weeks" after
Powers' bust Genevra arrived in
Cincinnati.33 Longworth opened his
home to other wealthy Cincinnatians to
unveil new art acquisitions.
Harriet Martineau described a party at
this house in 1835 at "the
largest and most elegant" of any
she attended in Cincinnati.34 Public
29. John I. H. Baur, ed., The
Autobiography of Worthington Whittredge, (New York,
1969), 17, cited in Carter, 15.
30. Letter from Lily M. Spencer to her
mother, November 3, 1841, quoted in Carter,
15.
31. Harris, 107; "Letters of Hiram
Powers to Nicholas Longworth, Esq., 1856-1858,"
Quarterly Publication of the Historical and Philosophical Society
of Ohio, I, 1906, 55.
32. Carter, 21.
33. Letter from Jacob Burnet to Hiram
Powers, January 13, 1843, Hiram Powers Pa-
pers, Cincinnati Historical Society.
34. Martineau, 224-25.
16 OHIO HISTORY
viewing space increased in the late
1840s and 1850s, but in the 1830s
Cincinnati artists had few outlets
beyond private homes.
While Drake urged Cincinnatians to
"foster Western genius" and
create a regional culture, most local
patrons bought few works from
Cincinnati artists. Collectors Peyton
Symmes and Longworth pur-
chased mainly Eastern and foreign
paintings. Symmes owned at least
eighteen works, only a few of which were
done by Cincinnati artists,
including Aaron Corwine, Samuel Lee, and
John King (1806-1847).35
Longworth also owned few works by
Cincinnati artists-two by Hi-
ram Powers, two by sculptor Shubal
Clevenger, one by sculptor A.
Rostaing, and a portrait by William
Powell.36 Certainly, Symmes and
Longworth had the right to purchase
whatever art they chose, but
they made it more difficult for artists
to find work and remain in the
Queen City.
Some Cincinnati artists openly
criticized the private patronage sys-
tem. While American intellectuals
criticized European art as the pro-
duct of elitism, royalty, and tyranny,
Cincinnati artists often felt their
situation differed only in the absence
of royal titles for their patrons.
In return for financial support, some
patrons demanded excessive
control over artists' lives. Painter
John Frankenstein, in his satire
American Art: Its Awful Attitude, called Longworth "Nick Little-
worth" and artists supported by
Longworth, "pets." Frankenstein
attributed manipulative, evil motives to
Longworth. Littleworth
sought to control artists' destiny by
giving or withholding financial
support.
"Give artists work!"
[Littleworth] cries, "I'm no such fool!
G-d d-n 'em, starve 'em! starve 'em!
that's my rule!
To bring them out, it is the only way,
The shiftless, good-for-nothing dogs, I
say!"37
Frankenstein wrote his criticism as
satire and clearly used extreme
language. He was not alone, however, in
finding elitist tendencies in
private patronage in Cincinnati. James
H. Beard, a Cincinnati painter,
described an instance in which Longworth
offered to finance study
in New York if Beard left his family
behind-perhaps for several
years. His arrogance struck Beard most;
Longworth apparently as-
35. Charles Cist, Cincinnati in 1841:
Its Early Annals and Future Prospects, (Cincin-
nati, 1841), 139-41. See also, E. D.
Mansfield, Personal Memoirs, Social Political and
Literary Sketches of Many Noted
People, 1803-1843, (Cincinnati, 1879),
148-49, and
Harris, 107.
36. Cist, 1841, 139-41, and
Carter, 21.
37. Frankenstein, 89, 14.
Painters and Patrons 17 |
|
sumed that any artist would greedily accept his offer of support, un- der any conditions.38 Cincinnati artists before 1840 were not alone in disliking their total dependence on private patronage. Nationwide, many artists believed that patrons restricted their expressions and training. Money made patrons, not fine taste. And since artists needed money to survive, they catered to the major source of demand in the American art market-portraiture. Painter Henry Inman complained that no one would commission landscapes or genre scenes. An "exclusive slavery to portraiture" prevailed.39 By the late 1830s, the artist's experience in Cincinnati had changed very little from the days of Audubon and Corwine, more than fifteen years before. Although the number of wealthy patrons rose as Cin- cinnati grew, the type of support remained basically the same: artists had no schools of instruction and depended on the favor of individ- ual patrons for sales. In the next decade, however, artists and patrons
38. James H. Beard Autobiographical Notes, Daniel Carter Beard Papers, Library of Congress, 21-22. Cited in Carter, 16. 39. Harris, 66. See also, Harris' chapter "The Burden of Portraiture" for more de- tails on the national art scene. |
18 OHIO HISTORY
experimented with new ways to support
the arts financially and to ex-
tend their support beyond the Cincinnati
elite.
II. The 1840s: Decade of
Experimentation
In response to the limited artistic
market and restrictive conditions,
many artists sought alternatives to the
private patronage system, ways
to become self-sufficient by training
prospective artists and marketing
their own works. An early step toward
this goal was the opening of art
academies managed and staffed by
professional artists. Modeled af-
ter the European schools, American art
academies sought to create a
trained, professional community. New
York's National Academy of
Design was one of the earliest founded
in the United States, but its
success at training artists and holding
exhibits was short-lived. Polit-
ical infighting and mismanagement
destroyed many other academies.
Although founded to open opportunities
for American artists to im-
prove their skills, the National Academy
became a status symbol
among artists-the antithesis of
democratic art. Training students,
the academies also found, did not
necessarily imply commercial suc-
cess for the school. Academies still
relied on financial support from
the wealthy, whether to purchase
paintings or subsidize instruction
costs.40
In Cincinnati, academies of the fine
arts faced conditions similar to
those of New York. Godfrey Frankenstein,
brother of the satirist and
himself a painter, founded the
Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts in
1838. His attempt to train artists and
cultivate artistic taste was even
more difficult to sustain in the West
since art appreciation and patrons
were scarcer than in New York. The
Cincinnati Academy met three
times each week to draw but could not
afford to transport plaster
casts and models from New York. The
"first collection of the kind [of
casts and models] that has ever been
brought east of the moun-
tains," was purchased for the
academy two years later by a few pri-
vate donors. Their first art exhibition
in 1838 of over 150 paintings (in-
tended to finance the purchase of
supplies and models) was poorly
attended and failed miserably.41 There
were simply too few potential
buyers of fine art in the city. As in
New York, Cincinnati artists found
themselves dependent on private dollars.
Frankenstein pointed out
that the difficulties of his
organization were common throughout the
Queen City. All other fine art academies
in Cincinnati, he claimed in
40. Harris, 62-63, 94, 99.
41. Cincinnati Enquirer, December
23, 1840; Cist, 1841, 142.
Painters and Patrons 19
1840, had also failed. Artists still
needed the private support of the
rich.
Cincinnati booster Charles Cist called
for a change in elite attitudes
towards the fine arts in 1841. While
Daniel Drake believed support of
the fine arts should be left to the
individual patron, Cist called for
elite cooperation with artists and
institutions in elevating the public's
aesthetic tastes. In his book Cincinnati
in 1841: Its Early Annals and
Future Prospects, Cist promoted art for its aesthetic value alone-a
change from Drake's emphasis on cultural
unity for political strength.
One of the main examples of cooperation
in Cincinnati culture that
Cist described was the Society for the
Promotion of Useful Knowl-
edge. Wealthy professionals, artists,
and the general public attended
lectures on the "fine arts" as
well as the "practical arts" and "moral
and intellectual philosophy."
Another organization, The Eclectic
Academy of Music, set out to improve
Cincinnatians' musical knowl-
edge and taste, but concentrated on
works "such as are adapted to
moral and religious purposes."
Support by the wealthy of such or-
ganizations could be seen in the society
rosters. Art collector Peyton
Symmes headed the fine arts section of
the society for Useful Knowl-
edge, and Jacob Burnet, Cincinnati judge
and later United States
senator, was president of the Eclectic
Academy of Music. Although
Drake never emphasized direct
involvement of Cincinnati's prominent
citizens in artistic organizations, Cist
applauded it.
While Drake insisted on an independent,
regional culture, Cist
praised those organizations for serious
artistic study that were based
"on a plan similar to those of
Philadelphia and New York." By
praising copies of eastern artistic
societies, Cist acknowledged a cul-
tural debt to the East that Drake would
never have admitted so
openly. Cincinnati's youth as a city,
which Drake had described op-
timistically, Cist recognized to be a
cultural liability. "The fine arts
do not spring at once into being in a
new community," Cist wrote.
"The wealth that exists here is
amply sufficient" for artistic patron-
age, he stated; "one generation,
however, must pass before that
wealth will be thus elegantly
spent."
Cist also focused on urban, as opposed
to regional, culture. "The
'Society for the Promotion of Useful
Knowledge' has formed the
worthy, even if bold, project, of
seeking to realize for Cincinnati some
of those benefits which seem peculiarly
to belong to cities." The city
was unique, Cist claimed, in its
potential to transcend the sum of indi-
vidual accomplishments. "Unless the
higher feelings are stifled,"
wrote Cist, "nobler relations . . .
spring up between fellow-citizens.
For they find themselves mutually
dependent for the moral, intellec-
20 OHIO HISTORY
tual, and social influences which
combine to make the spiritual at-
mosphere of this community." Cist
focused on the spiritual appeal of
art, moving beyond Drake's moral and
political goals. Cist believed
that "Truth, beauty, and happiness,
which are the life-blood of so-
ciety" emanated from the fine arts.
For Cist, the purpose of culture
was intangible aesthetic gratification.42
At the time of Cist's writing, an
informal, artistic community had
developed in Cincinnati. Cist in 1841
listed nineteen artists working in
Cincinnati. A dozen more artists had
recently left the city, however,
for training at European and eastern art
centers.43 After the failure of
a traditional model of instruction,
Godfrey Frankenstein's Academy
of the Fine Arts, Cincinnati artists
turned to another sales method.
The problem, as they saw it, was
twofold. First, the market for non-
commissioned works was limited as the
failure of the Academy's ex-
hibit had shown. Only a handful of
wealthy residents purchased
large, non-commissioned works. Second,
the demand for commis-
sioned portraits severely limited their
expression. Cincinnati needed
a larger pool of buyers with a broader
range of tastes.
They therefore turned to the art union
as a way of encouraging
public support of the arts. The art
union operated on a lottery princi-
ple. Anyone could become a member of the
union for a small fee (in
Cincinnati the price was $5.00). With
membership money received,
the art union directors purchased
paintings and sculptures. The art
works were exhibited to the public, and
at the end of the year were
distributed by lottery. For a $5.00
investment, a member could win a
$200.00 painting. The art union
originated in London, was copied in
New York, and in Cincinnati in 1846 as
the Western Art Union. The
Western Art Union was a cooperative
effort of the wealthy Cincinnati
professionals and artists. Charles
Stetson and John P. Foote, two art
patrons, served on the Board of
Directors. In its stated goals, the di-
rectors hoped to broaden the pool of art
buyers and to stimulate a
"refining influence . . . upon the
heart and mind" of Cincinnati socie-
ty. Recalling earlier criticisms of
European royal patronage, the Art
Union directors to support the arts
"not through the pride of the
Prince, but from the love of the
People."44
From the artists' perspective, the art
union held several advan-
tages over commissioned patronage. Since
the art union purchased all
styles of painting, artists found the
opportunity to shed the burden of
42. Cist, 1841, 133, 135-41.
43. Ibid., 139-41.
44. Transactions of the Western Art
Union, (Cincinnati, 1847), 31, 23.
Painters and Patrons 21 |
|
portraiture. Financially, purchases by the union greatly expanded and stabilized the local and regional art markets. Of the twenty-seven artists who contributed to the Western Art Union's 1846 distribution, eighteen, or two-thirds, were from the West.45 Local landscape painting was particularly encouraged. The West- ern Art Union's directors, all wealthy Cincinnati citizens, solicited a "selection of such local and national subjects as may enlist the pride of our country in the support of good taste."46 Two-thirds of the paintings in 1846 were landscapes. Only seventeen of seventy-four were portraits.
45. Ibid, 23. 46. Ibid., 7. See also Thomas Cole's article "Essay on American Scenery," The American Monthly Magazine, new series, 1 (1836), 1-12 and "Fine Arts: Opening of the Sixth Seal" for a description of the sublime. |
22 OHIO HISTORY
The Western Art Union's emphasis on
landscape was part of a
larger trend in American painting to
depict the native scenery. The
wild, free character of American scenery
was suited to express feel-
ings of the sublime on canvas.
Stimulated by British and German Ro-
manticism, Thomas Cole and other members
of the Hudson River
School of American landscape painting
wanted to capture the sub-
lime in the American wilderness. Cole
gave a catalog of America's nat-
ural wonders that were suitable for
painting. In his list of specific
mountains, lakes, rivers, forests, and
cloud types, Cole found Niagara
Falls, "the voice of the
landscape," to be closest to the sublime. The
viewer became part of the swirling
water, sensing its awesome power.
Cincinnati artist Godfrey Frankenstein
depicted the Falls at every
time of day and year. His paintings were
often included in the Art Un-
ion distribution.
Ideally, both artist and public
benefitted from the Western Art
Union. Members received a free engraving
and the chance to win an
original painting. The Art Union
exhibit, housed in a four-story
building, was open to non-members and
was a "subject of just
pride" to all as Cincinnatians. Art
became accessible and enjoyable
visiting the exhibit became a form of
public recreation. By shrewdly
combining business and aesthetics, the
Art Union started an educa-
tional process that fueled itself. The
Union exhibit was convenient
and, as its promoters explained, a
"very successful mode, of dissemi-
nating a taste for the arts and of
obtaining subscribers to the Art
Union."47
The method was successful in the
beginning. In its first four
years, from 1846 to 1849, Western Art
Union membership increased
seven-fold, from 700 to nearly 4800.
Income totaled $24,000 in 1849.
Seventy-four paintings were distributed
in 1846, 110 in 1850. Painting
quality and value increased each year as
well.48 About half of the
works distributed were done by
Cincinnati artists.
The Western Art Union's final
significance, however, lay in its crea-
tion rather than actual results. In
theory it was an alternative to pri-
vate patronage. In practice, however,
ties to wealthy Cincinnati pa-
trons were still strong. Nicholas
Longworth and Judge Jacob Burnet
drew members' names for the first
distribution. The Director,
Charles Stetson, was a bank president.
The Art Union was a
cooperative effort between the local
elite and artists, but Union di-
rectors viewed their organization as a
purely temporary stimulus of
47. Ibid., 6.
48. Western Art Union, 1847, 1849, 1850.
Painters and Patrons 23
Cincinnati art. They did not want to
become the "regular and natural
patron and supporter" of the arts.49
That position was still occupied
by individual, private patrons.
The Art Union also refused to pay more
than the local going rate for
paintings. It provided a "more
frequent and steadier market"50 for
artists, but the payment per work
remained the same. While artistic
development in the abstract was a proof
of a city's cultural achieve-
ment and maturity, individual artists
and their works were often con-
sidered extravagant.
The story of the Western Art Union is
more a story of what might
have been than of what was. In theory,
the Art Union promised to
offer an alternative to private
patronage by broadening artistic taste
and support. It could be seen as
democratic in its effort to spread art
to the general public. In practice,
however, the Art Union was domi-
nated by local elites, and the $5.00
membership fee, though less
than the price of most canvases,
certainly excluded many members
of society. The Union widened the scope
of artistic support to a limit-
ed degree only.
The Western Art Union failed in more practical
terms as well in
1851. Through mismanagement and
accusations of corruption, the
Union became insolvent. Charles Stetson,
a director, and other offi-
cers were accused of unfairly favoring
some artists over others. Wil-
liam Steele, a painter on the Board of
Directors, sold ten of his works
to the Union in 1849, more than any
other single artist that year.
Though the Union never intended to
become a permanent fixture in
the Cincinnati community, no one
expected it to go down amidst
scandal as it did. After only four
years, in 1851, the Western Art Un-
ion folded.
Many viewed the collapse of the Western
Art Union as a betrayal of
public trust by the directors. Once
fooled, the less wealthy support-
ers would be reticent to buy into any
art organization again. As John
Frankenstein later stated, Stetson and
the other officers twisted the
Art Union into "vile and villainous
work." Their self interest mocked
the public's earnest support of the
arts. He continued:
The People freely paid, true Art to
speed,
But in its name would not corruption
feed;
The growing popularity of Art
These rascals stifled at its very start.51
49. Ibid., 1847, 28, 17.
50. Ibid., 1847, 21.
51. Frankenstein, 18.
24 OHIO HISTORY
In the end, both Cincinnati and artists
lost in the Art Union's col-
lapse, reversing the organization's
original goal of helping both.
The failure of the Western Art Union was
a turning point in Cincin-
nati's artistic development from 1820 to
1860. While successful, the
Art Union marked a highpoint in popular
participation in the Cincin-
nati fine arts market for most of the
century.52 Until the opening of
the Cincinnati Art Museum after the
Civil War, the public had only
limited viewing opportunities and, even
with the Museum, rarely had
the means or commitment to buy costly
paintings. The Art Union ex-
hibitions were simple and sound investments.
During the antebellum
period, Cincinnati artists never
regained the large market that the Art
Union had provided. By 1861, artists
frequently left town for commis-
sions or worked as craftsmen to earn
some income.53
After the Western Union failed, no one
again attempted to enlarge
the patronage pool the way the Art Union
had done for a short time.
In the history of Cincinnati arts the
Art Union was an experimental re-
sponse to patronage problems. The fine
arts of painting and sculpture
appealed to a limited group of
supporters-the Cincinnati elite.
III. The 1850s and Early '60s
As Cincinnati grew in wealth and
population (over 160,000 by 1860),
the artistic community also expanded,
but its dependence on private
patronage by the rich remained the same.
Osgood Mussey, a local
journalist, heralded a "new
era" in Cincinnati culture as two painting
galleries, fine architecture and a
landscaped cemetery opened to the
public.54 Artists' studios,
supply stores, and galleries were clustered
around Fourth St. and Main. The anchor
for all the fine art activity
was William Wiswell's gallery.
All the full-time portrait and landscape
painters listed in the 1858
city directory operated out of studios
within three blocks of Wis-
well's gallery on Fourth St. James
Beard, still in Cincinnati after thirty
years, worked in the same building as
painter Henry Kemper. John
Frankenstein and Robert Duncanson also
opened studios on Fourth
St. Some artists, like John Aubery,
opted for less expensive loft space
in the four-story stone and brick
buildings. For supplies, artists
walked to William H. Harrison & Co.,
"Paints, Oils and Glass," at 23
52. After the Civil War, the Cincinnati
Museum of Art, McMicken School of Design,
and the Ladies' Fine Arts Gallery
offered greater viewing space.
53. The Sketch Club, 1
(Cincinnati, March, 1860).
54. Osgood Mussey, "The Fine Arts
in Cincinnati and the West," Moore's Western
Lady's Book, 11, 1854, 67.
Painters and Patrons 25
W. Fourth St. or Hoffman and Moses at
222 Main.55 Artists could
buy paints or study quality works at
Wiswell's with ease-quite an
advance over the 1830s when plaster
casts and linseed oil were rare
commodities.
Wiswell's gallery on the "entire
lower floor of No. 70 West Fourth
St." opened in 1851, attracted
artists, Cincinnati patrons, and tour-
ists.56 As a professional
picture framer, Wiswell had been a middle-
man in the Cincinnati art scene for
years. Both artists and patrons
knew him and frequented his gallery. He
continued his intermediary
role by allowing the struggling artists
of the Cincinnati Sketch Club to
post drawings in his window each week,
hoping to catch the eye of
incoming patrons. Wiswell bought
finished paintings and sculptures
from local artists as well as European
and other American painters.57
Wiswell's gallery occupied a prime
location to attract potential buy-
ers in downtown Cincinnati. Fine shops
lined most of Fourth Street,
pulling in wealthy residents from
outlying suburbs and tourists from
Cincinnati's best hotels, the Burnet
House and Galt House, only a
block away. Guidebook writer Stevens
described Fourth Street as
"the fashionable promenade of the
city," thronged with shoppers
and tourists gazing at the river below.58
By 1860, Cincinnati appeared to have all
the components of a flour-
ishing art center. The artists
themselves, however, thought other-
wise. Artists still sought respect for
their profession. They wanted
the public to recognize their work as
the product of knowledge and
years of training. John Frankenstein
grew so frustrated with public
misperceptions of artists, he declared
"that artist is of fool the syno-
nym"59 to expect
recognition. As members of the Sketch Club stat-
ed, "The public generally have an
idea that painters, poets, sculp-
tors, et hoc genus omne
have an art of living upon the food of fancy,
and the dainty sweetmeats from the bills
of providential ravens."60
An artist without a second supporting
profession was rare. Most art-
ists found that painting and sculpture
were still not appreciated in
Cincinnati. Members of the Sketch Club
described themselves as
55. William's Cincinnati Directory, City
Guide, and Business Mirror; For 1858, (Cin-
cinnati, 1858), 315.
56. Charles Cist, Sketches and
Statistics of Cincinnati in 1859, (Cincinnati, 1859),
205.
57. The Sketch Club, I (April 21,
1860), 5; George E. Stevens, The Queen City in 1869,
(Cincinnati, 1869), 66. See also, A
New Pocket Map of Cincinnati, Ohio, (Cincinnati,
1860); Cist, 1859, 205.
58. Stevens, 24.
59. Frankenstein, 101.
60. Sketch Club, no. 1, 5.
26 OHIO HISTORY
sculptors "who of necessity touch
up an occasional grave-stone" and
painters who doubled as engravers,
achieving "wonderful feats of
horsemanship on a seven-feet circus
bill." Together they entered into
a "conspiracy against ignorance and
prejudice" in Cincinnati.61 On
both the intellectual and monetary
level, the artistic profession re-
mained in low esteem in Cincinnati.
Though Charles Cist had valued art
mainly for its aesthetic ap-
peal, a major obstacle for appreciation
of the fine arts in Cincinnati
was the dominant view of reformers and
publicists that art ought to
be utilitarian. Art best served the
public good if it were somehow
useful in technology or practical moral
education. Until 1830 art was
more closely allied with the trades than
the elite. Most artists were
poorly educated, itinerant portraitists
whose main aim was to create a
likeness rather than an interpretation.62
In these circumstances, a
practical, utilitarian view of art was
not unwarranted. As American
artists became more educated,
craftsmanship and the fine arts split.
The utilitarian rationale for all art,
however, was still imposed on
both. Refueled by the revivalism and
reform of the 1830s, the utili-
tarian ideal took on the power of moral
improvement. It was appropri-
ate that Cincinnati's Society for Useful
Knowledge, founded in the
1830s, held classes in the fine arts
alongside science and mechan-
ics.63
The Western Art Journal, published
in Cincinnati in 1855, pro-
posed a definition of the utilitarian
arts. Articles included "Photogra-
phy," "Steamboat Building on
the Ohio," and "The Steam Fire En-
gine." In the essay "American
Art," editors argued that although
the fine arts could be pursued,
America's distinctive character lay in
technological advancement. Particularly
in the West, where the arts
were young, residents should pursue
mechanics and agricultural ad-
vances. The Western Art Journal claimed
"to promote a correct ap-
preciation of what is really useful and
beautiful."64
Photography, the combination of portrait
and technology, epito-
mized the utilitarian view of art.
Painters in the Sketch Club saw
photography as a crass abandonment of
artist skill. Photography ap-
peared in Cincinnati in the 1840s and
became exceptionally popular
for portraits in the mid-'50s. Painters
in 1860 lamented the "fact that
Photography has almost entirely absorbed
everything in the way of
61. Ibid., no. 1, 2.
62. Harris, 77, 58-59.
63. Cist, 1841, 133-35.
64. Western Art Journal, (Cincinnati,
1855).
Painters and Patrons 27 |
|
art." Photographs were useful as studies, but they were also "some- what soulless" as portraits.65 Many artists believed utilitarianism caused or at least abetted the extreme commercialization of art. A painter's ability to sell works of- ten determined his artistic talent in the public eye. As John Franken- stein wrote, "Here [in Cincinnati], merit's measured by the rule of cash,/what fails in this, is deemed but worthless trash."66 Outside the group of artists, promoters tried to merge the artistic and the utilitarian. The fine arts, they argued, would actually further the useful arts by raising the general level of knowledge. As one news- paper editor explained, the fine arts gave "a refinement and polish" to Cincinnati, "as necessary to its advanced progress as the cultiva- tion of the more sturdy arts."67 Publications and promoters devoted to art, and supposedly familiar with artists' concerns, also supported the utilitarian justification for art. In 1855, Osgood Mussey, a local
65. Sketch Club, no. 2 (April 21, 1860), 4-5. 66. Frankenstein, 11. 67. Enquirer, June 10, 1842. |
28 OHIO HISTORY
journalist, praised Cincinnatians as a
"practical and progressive peo-
ple" in "a utilitarian
age." Every act or experience improved the intel-
lect, he claimed, and hence viewing a
painting contributed to the
"atmosphere of intelligence"
so sought after in Cincinnati. Under
these assumptions, "the fine arts
march hand in hand with the utili-
tarian."68 For Mussey,
utilitarianism did not have to remain an ob-
stacle to the appreciation of fine art.
Utilitarianism forced art into a
practical framework which many art-
ists saw as stifling and destructive of
the human spirit. As early as
1836, Thomas Cole, a nationally-known
Ohio painter, denounced the
"meagre utilitarianism" that
he saw dominating art in his time. In a
New York art and literature journal,
Cole appealed to the reader's ro-
mantic nature to abandon a merely
utilitarian outlook:
What is sometimes called improvement in
its march makes us fear that the
bright and tender flowers of the
imagination shall be crushed beneath its
iron tramp.69
Those "bright and tender
flowers," a contemporary of Cole
claimed, represented the essential human
spirit endangered by a
misguided society. Before the
"benign influence" of the fine arts, he
wrote, "man existed; [but]
he can scarcely be said to have lived, as
man."70
Those who supported pragmatic
improvement at the expense of
the imagination were repugnant and
"meagre" in Cole's eyes. Utilitar-
ianism stood as the polar opposite to
Romanticism. Artists perceived
a fundamental gap between utilitarian
minds and themselves, one
that went beyond professional and
financial concerns. The non-artist
public was often on a conflicting path
with the fine arts. Given these
basic differences in outlook, one can
understand why John Franken-
stein remained so bitter and why many
artists left Cincinnati in frus-
tration. They hoped, sometimes in vain,
that the East And Europe
would nurture their romantic nature
rather than repress it.
Many of Cincinnati's most talented
artists did leave the city, even
before the 1850s. Cist in 1841 listed
nineteen artists working in Cincin-
nati and twelve more Queen City residents
who worked in other
American cities or in Europe. Miner
Kellogg and Hiram Powers, sculp-
tor Frederick Eckstein's star pupils,
both lived in Florence in 1841.
68. Mussey, 48.
69. Thomas Cole, "Essay on American
Scenery," The American Monthly Magazine,
1 (1836), 3.
70. William Dunlap, "Essay on the
Influence of the Arts of Design," The American
Monthly Magazine, new series vol. 1 (1836), 114.
Painters and Patrons 29
Some artists left for further training,
and others left to find work.
Painter T. Buchanan Read was forced to
leave Cincinnati many times
for commissions.71
By the 1850s and early 1860s, more and
more artists not only left
Cincinnati for other American cities but
for Europe as well. Cincinnati
could not offer financial support or
extensive collections to its artists.
Europe offered both. Local painter Moses
Ezekiel (1844-1917) spoke
of Europe as the ideal place to study
and practice fine art:
When I had finished the statuette in all
of its most minute details, it was
exhibited in a prominent window of an
art-shop in 4th St., and the papers
spoke about the work in a very
encouraging manner. I never expected any-
body to buy or order the work, but the
encouragement made up my mind
that the only thing left for me to do
would be to go to Europe, and study in
some one of the great centers of art.72
Though it is impossible to determine
each artist's motive for leav-
ing Cincinnati, by examining the
conditions for artists in the city in
the 1850s one can see that there were
few alternatives to Europe.
Staying in the city meant struggling for
recognition from an uneducat-
ed public and working second jobs to
support painting and sculpting.
In response to these conditions, at
least nine local artists were in
Europe in 1859.73
Cincinnatians were not the only artists
traveling to Europe. Many
American painters, sculptors, and
writers lived in Europe for several
years before the Civil War. Over one
hundred American artists lived
in Italy alone.74
In place of alienation, Europe offered
American artists public re-
spect, established academies, and a
tradition of artistic greatness. As
James Russell Lowell described the
American artists European expe-
rience, "Italy gives cheaply what gold cannot buy for him at home."
In contrast to Cincinnati, Europe
offered original masterpieces. Eu-
rope had history, "a Past at once
legendary and authentic."75 Au-
thor Washington Irving was drawn to the
"shadowy grandeur"76 of
Europe's ruined castles and aqueducts.
The scenes of great achieve-
ments enthralled Irving and other
American writers and painters.
71. Cist, 1841, 140-141; Sketch
Club, no. 2, 4.
72. Moses Ezekiel, undated, American
Archives of Art, 97, quoted in Carter, 20.
73. Cist, 1859.
74. Cushing Strout, The American
Image of the Old World, (New York, 1963), 68.
75. James Russell Lowell, quoted by Otto
Whitman, Jr., "The Italian Experience,"
American Quarterly, 4 (Spring, 1952), 11.
76. Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the
American Mind, (New Haven: Yale Univ.
Press, 1967), 72.
30 OHIO HISTORY
While Americans faced an unfathomable
wilderness in the 1830s,
Europe offered "monuments of man's
fierce passions, of furious battle
and heroic, martial deeds"77 that
dated back thousands of years.
From an American viewpoint, Europe was
inundated with art. One
New York writer, Charles Dunlap, in 1836
described how fine archi-
tecture and ornamentation abounded, even
in small European vil-
lages. The common people, he argued,
were more sensitive to all art
forms because they had been exposed to
such beauty all their lives.
By 1859, Cincinnati booster Charles Cist
adopted a similar argument.
Introducing a chapter on Cincinnati fine
arts, Cist described how in
Europe art touched all aspects of city
life and artists got credit for
creating it. "The [European] towns
are populous with statues of great
artists," he wrote,
the chiefest attraction of the cities
are the galleries of their works; streets
are named after them, and the great
living painters and sculptors are the
companions of sovereigns, and are loaded
with honors."78
In Europe, art was plentiful and
rewarded.
Artists were not the only Americans in
Europe before the Civil
War. Patrons went too. After 1830, a
growing economy in the United
States enabled many Americans to visit
Europe as tourists for the first
time. Most travelers were educated and
affluent, and those Ameri-
cans who could afford to travel to
Europe developed a more sophisti-
cated appreciation of fine art than
those who never left the United
States. The old dominance of portraiture
began to fade as Americans
returned with a greater interest in all
genres of painting and sculpture.
For this new group of American patrons,
"emotional excitement pro-
duced intellectual commitments"79
to support a broader range of art
in the United States. Ironically,
intellectual and financial support for
an American art form became possible
only after Americans saw and
accepted the art of Europe.
Cincinnati artists also defined
themselves in relation to Europe. As
strangers in a foreign country, they
felt a heightened sense of identity
as Americans. Cincinnati sculptor Hiram
Powers celebrated Washing-
ton's Birthday with other American
artists in Florence, serving bot-
tles of Nicholas Longworth's Cincinnati
wine.80 Powers kept in close
touch with many Cincinnati residents,
both artists and patrons,
77. Mussey, 47.
78. Cist, 1859, 201.
79. Harris, 127, 144.
80. "Letters of Hiram Powers,"
Quarterly.
Painters and Patrons 31
while living in Europe. Nicholas
Longworth and Jacob Burnet still
ordered sculptures from him, and
Cincinnatians planning trips to
Europe asked Powers for travelers'
advice.81 Even after twenty years
in Florence, Powers still called
Cincinnati home. His wife believed,
he wrote to Longworth, "that the
original paradise was situated at,
or not far from Cincinnati" to
which he hoped soon to return.82 Al-
though financial difficulties kept
Powers in Europe, he and other
American artists became more aware of
their nationality when
abroad. Europe was a land of training
and opportunity, but the Unit-
ed States still claimed first
allegiance.
Unlike Powers, who remained in Florence
permanently, most artists
returned to the United States,83 bringing
the European experience
home with them. The American artist of
the 1840s and 1850s was
more likely to have European training
than his counterpart before
1830. Armed with new skills and a
heightened American identity,
artists returned to the United States
determined to raise the general
level of American art.
Though it is unclear whether Charles
Cist ever visited Europe,
in his last work, Sketches and Statistics
of Cincinnati in 1859, Cist
viewed European culture as ideal.
"The most lasting and honorable
monuments of a people's greatness,"
he wrote, "are those connected
with the national art." Art need
not serve a political or pragmatic pur-
pose in order to benefit the nation or
to be patronized. Cist asserted
that a nation's true strength lay in a
culture grounded in the fine arts.
"The art of a country has thus
become the type of its power, not less
than its refinement, and political
economists in this country would do
well to learn that it is not alone in
the encouragement of what are
called . . . the useful as
compared with the fine arts, that the pros-
perity of a nation is advanced."
Drake had proposed practical, imme-
diate steps toward a unified regional
culture, but Cist in 1859 appreci-
ated the universal quality of fine art.
"Beauty is immutable while
infinite, and the creations of a true
artist endure to yield pleasure and
instruction to successive
generations."84
Despite their praise of American art,
however, Cincinnati patrons
and promoters revealed an ambivalence
toward the East and Eu-
81. Powers Papers, Cincinnati Historical
Society. Powers wrote hundreds of letters
from Florence to Cincinnatians. His
largest single correspondence was with Nicholas
Longworth.
82. Letters of Hiram Powers to Nicholas
Longworth, Oct. 3, 1858, published in
Quarterly.
83. Strout, 70.
84. Cist, 1859, 136, 200-01.
32 OHIO HISTORY
rope. Osgood Mussey, a Cincinnati
journalist, vehemently asserted
American superiority over Europe and
West over East, but he proud-
ly wrote of local artists'
"accomplishments"-usually defined as be-
ing known outside Cincinnati. Mussey's
highest praise went to those
artists who excelled in the European
schools of art.85 The Western
Art Union also cited Hiram Powers, who
never returned to Cincinna-
ti, as evidence of the city's artistic
development. Europe persisted as
the cultural standard against which
Cincinnati elite and publicists
measured Cincinnati art. Their
ambivalence revealed a deeper fear of
provinciality.
The Cincinnati artists, in contrast,
decried the lack of artistic taste
in the Queen City and denounced their
"artistic law of primogeni-
ture" to the East.86 Cist
in 1859 published an alternative to the utili-
tarian outlook on art, but he offered no
practical ways for artists to
achieve the immutable beauty in
Cincinnati. Artists continued to
leave the city, as the Sketch Club
lamented in 1861:
We are sorry to find that our artists
find more encouragement in the East-
ern cities than they do here at home, we
will instance Powell, Read, Sontagg
and a host of others, who are overloaded
with commissions from elsewhere,
at good prices, while here our patronage
seems so poor.87
Cincinnati itself destroyed artists, even
talented, European-trained
ones, wrote John Frankenstein in 1864.
Of the Cincinnati artists who
studied in Europe, most who returned to
the United States went to
New York. While New York grew as an
American art center in the
1850s and 1860s, Cincinnati paled in
comparison.
Cist's outlook had become global,
drawing on the European cul-
tural tradition as the model for
Cincinnati. This represented a rever-
sal of Drake's provincial view of the
West as the savior of the nation.
In forty years, the conditions that
generated Cist and Drake's view-
points had changed considerably. By 1859
Cincinnati was no longer
part of the West. As settlement extended
past the Ohio Valley, Cin-
cinnati became the Central West, no
longer on the edge of the nation.
While Drake compared Cincinnati to a
"green and growing" sapling,
full of potential, Cist acknowledged
"its remoteness from the great art
schools of the world."88
As the useful, technological arts grew, and
the fine arts declined, Cincinnati
ironically realized Daniel Drake's
dream of a separate Western culture.
85. Mussey, 47.
86. Sketch Club, no. 1, p. 1.
87. Ibid., no. 3, p. 4.
88. Drake, Remarks, 26; Cist, 1859,
201.
KATHLEEN M. DILLON
Painters and Patrons: The Fine Arts in
Cincinnati, 1820-1860
In short, we should foster western
genius, encourage western writers, pa-
tronize western publishers, augment the
number of western readers and cre-
ate a western heart.1
-Daniel Drake, 1833
Dr. Daniel Drake, a Cincinnati physician
and public benefactor,
made his plea for a distinctly western
culture at a gathering of Ohio
and Kentucky teachers in 1833. If the
arts received public support,
Drake believed, Cincinnati and the West
would lead the nation by
their example of cultural unity.2 In
Drake's eyes, the West could
achieve everything-commerce, wealth,
moral education, and gen-
ius. Culture, the "western
heart," would unify and sanctify all as-
pects of Cincinnati's growth.
As Drake evidenced in this and other
writings, even leaders of
frontier towns concerned themselves with
aspects of city life that
went beyond the income, trade, and
population statistics. One might
expect Cincinnati writers in the
antebellum period to praise com-
merce and to predict that Cincinnati
would grow richer than any oth-
er American city, since economic growth
was the basis for Cincinna-
ti's overall growth. Drake and others'
interests in the city's cultural
life before the Civil War is more
surprising, however, since one associ-
ates frontier boomtowns more often with
expanding commerce than
with artists. Then as now, however, the
conditions that enable the
arts to flourish add a dimension to the
quality of city life that lies be-
yond economic prosperity. Support of the
arts is one symbol of urban
maturity, and another area of
competition between East and West.
Kathleen M. Dillon is a graduate of Yale
University and is currently studying law at
Cornell University.
1. Daniel Drake, Remarks on the
Importance of Promoting Literary and Social Con-
cert, (Louisville, 1833), 26.
2. Ibid. For more information on
Cincinnati's role as a frontier city, see Richard
Wade's The Urban Frontier, (Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1959), and John Jakle's Im-
ages of the Ohio Valley (New York, 1977).