The visual arts in the United States developed in tension between regional vernacular traditions and transatlantic academic standards. Colonial portraiture emerged as the first sustained painting practice. John Singleton Copley worked in Boston from the 1750s through 1774 producing portraits that documented merchant families with materials rendered in precise detail. Gilbert Stuart painted over 1000 portraits during his career including three separate sittings with George Washington between 1795 and 1796. The resulting Athenaeum portrait became the model for the one-dollar bill image. Benjamin West moved to London in 1763 but maintained influence over American painters through his historical paintings that replaced classical settings with contemporary dress and documented events. Charles Willson Peale founded the first major museum of art and natural history in Philadelphia in 1786 and trained his sons Raphaelle, Rembrandt, and Titian Ramsay Peale as painters. The family produced portraits, still lifes, and natural history illustrations across three generations.
Landscape painting gained institutional support in the 1820s. Thomas Cole moved to New York in 1825 and began painting scenes of the Catskill Mountains and Hudson River valley. His 1836 series "The Course of Empire" consisted of five large canvases tracing a civilization from wilderness through pastoral state to destruction. Asher Durand, Frederic Edwin Church, and Albert Bierstadt expanded the Hudson River School approach to wilderness documentation. Church traveled to South America, the Arctic, and the Middle East producing paintings that measured up to six feet tall and ten feet wide. His 1861 painting "The Icebergs" sold at auction in 2979 for 2.5 million dollars. Bierstadt made multiple trips west between 1858 and 1873. His paintings of Yosemite Valley, the Rocky Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada range measured up to six by ten feet and toured cities in traveling exhibitions. "Among the Sierra Nevada, California" from 1868 now hangs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. George Catlin spent six years in the 1830s traveling to document indigenous peoples of the Great Plains. He produced over 500 paintings and traveled with his Indian Gallery exhibition to major cities and to Europe.
Genre painting and still life developed parallel to landscape work. William Sidney Mount painted scenes of rural life on Long Island from the 1830s through 1860s. His 1835 painting "Eel Spearing at Setauket" depicted a woman and child in a boat on a calm bay. George Caleb Bingham worked in Missouri painting scenes of riverboat life, traders, and election-day gatherings. His 1845 painting "Fur Traders Descending the Missouri" showed a canoe with two figures and a chained bear. Raphaelle Peale specialized in still lifes of fruit, vegetables, and arranged objects. His 1822 painting "A Deception" depicted a cloth hanging that appeared to conceal a painting behind it. John Haberle and William Harnett continued the trompe-l'oeil tradition in the late 1800s with paintings of currency, letters, and objects arranged on boards.
Expatriate painters working in Europe sent different influences back. James Abbott McNeill Whistler settled in London in 1859 and developed paintings focused on tonal harmonies rather than narrative content. His 1871 "Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1" became known as "Whistler's Mother" and now hangs in the Musée d'Orsay. Mary Cassatt joined the Impressionist circle in Paris in 1877 and exhibited in four of their eight exhibitions. She specialized in paintings of women and children in domestic settings using broken brushwork and high-keyed color. John Singer Sargent worked primarily in London and Paris painting society portraits and commissioned works. His 1884 portrait "Madame X" created controversy for its low-cut black dress and was later modified. Thomas Eakins remained in Philadelphia and painted portraits, rowing scenes, and medical subjects using photographs as studies. His 1875 painting "The Gross Clinic" depicted a surgical theater with Dr. Samuel Gross operating while students observed. The work measured eight feet tall and was rejected from the 1876 Centennial Exhibition art gallery.
The Ashcan School emerged in New York in the early 1900s. Robert Henri, John Sloan, George Luks, William Glackens, and Everett Shinn painted street scenes, tenements, bars, and working people using dark palettes and loose brushwork. They exhibited as "The Eight" in 1908 at Macbeth Galleries in response to National Academy of Design rejection. George Bellows joined the circle and painted boxing matches at Tom Sharkey's Athletic Club. His 1909 painting "Both Members of This Club" showed two fighters in a ring surrounded by spectators. Edward Hopper studied with Henri but developed a different approach. His paintings depicted empty storefronts, office workers, diners, and motels using strong light contrasts and isolated figures. "Nighthawks" from 1942 showed four people in a corner diner at night. The painting measures 33 by 60 inches and hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago.
Modernist movements entered through the 1913 Armory Show in New York. The International Exhibition of Modern Art displayed approximately 1300 works including European avant-garde paintings that shocked critics and audiences. Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" generated particular controversy. The exhibition traveled to Chicago and Boston reaching total attendance over 250,000. Georgia O'Keeffe began exhibiting flower paintings, landscapes, and abstractions in the 1920s. She moved to New Mexico in 1949 and painted desert landscapes, animal skulls, and architectural forms for the next four decades. Her painting "Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1" from 1932 sold at auction in 2014 for 44.4 million dollars setting a record for a work by a female artist. Charles Demuth painted industrial landscapes of Lancaster, Pennsylvania using sharp angles and geometric forms. His 1928 painting "My Egypt" depicted grain elevators. Stuart Davis developed a style combining jazz rhythms with commercial typography and bright color. His paintings referenced gasoline pumps, cigarette packages, and street signage.
The Harlem Renaissance produced visual artists alongside writers and musicians. Aaron Douglas created murals and paintings combining African motifs with Art Deco geometry. His 1934 mural series "Aspects of Negro Life" spans four panels in the New York Public Library Schomburg Center. Jacob Lawrence painted narrative series documenting historical subjects. His 1940-41 series "The Migration of the Negro" consisted of 60 panels depicting the movement of African Americans from the rural South to northern cities between 1910 and 1940. The odd-numbered panels are in the Museum of Modern Art and even-numbered panels are in the Phillips Collection. Romare Bearden worked across painting, collage, and printmaking. His collages from the 1960s combined cut photographs, painted papers, and fabric depicting scenes of Southern life, jazz musicians, and urban streets.
Regionalism emerged during the 1930s. Grant Wood painted scenes of Iowa life including his 1930 work "American Gothic" showing a farmer and woman standing before a house with a Gothic Revival window. The painting measures 30 by 25 inches and hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. Thomas Hart Benton created murals depicting scenes of American labor, agriculture, and industry. His 1930-31 mural "America Today" consists of ten panels originally commissioned for the New School in New York and now installed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. John Steuart Curry painted Kansas farm scenes and historical subjects. His 1937-42 murals in the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka depict abolitionist John Brown and scenes of Kansas history.