Elements Of The Two Predominant Social Classes example essay topic

The imagery of rural life in the works of artist is a very interesting and challenging theme. This is because most of the societies were moving from rural to urban through the history and therefore this transitional period is usually very important. During this period many changes happen to the landscape as well as to life of people in the overall context. Artists make pretty good representations of what is situation with emphasis on what will be in their works. In this paper we are going to examine the works of one of the World known artists William Sydney Mount as well as some works of his contemporaries concerning images of rural life that have great importance to the overall historical concepts.

During the mid-nineteenth century, the United States was undergoing many cultural changes. Towns were becoming cities, mass production was becoming prevalent, and many variations of people were coming to live. This made for major changes in social structure. There seemed to be a high class, the elites, and the lower class. However, this spawned a need for changes in this structure, something to bridge the gap. William Sidney Mount, captured this bridge of sorts in his paintings.

His depictions of American life with subjects of an elite status intermingled with subjects of a lower class were cause of his praise as educator and moral critic, propounding freedom by individual example and arguing through his art for the establishment of a new order based on an emerging middle-class consciousness or ideology (Oedel, Gernes, 129). Mounts use of basic artistic techniques made it easy for viewers to relate and understand the meanings in his works. His works were viewed by the American public as deceptively elementary... original, comprehensible, nationalistic, forceful, and timely (Oedel, Gernes, 128). Mount bridged the gap masterfully in nearly all of his works, employing elements of the two predominant social classes.

He did so in the work that he is most famous for, The Painters Triumph, which he painted in 1838, at the age of 31. The painting shows a painter triumphantly showing his piece to a farmer, both men indicative of their respective social classes. The farmer has a whip in his hand, and is hutch ed over as if in awe. The painting shows that the farmer has started from repose, both physical and intellectual, having risen from his chair to lean forward in attention (Oedel, Gernes, 137). The painter, meanwhile, has his arms open, as a sign of enthusiasm. The greater the extension of the arms... the more they express... energy of sentiment and feeling, and the more epic the character of the gesture (Oedel, Gernes, 137).

This shows Mounts ability to use human gestures in paintings to show feelings effectively. As stated before, Mount uses objects from both social classes and shows a kind of mutualism between the two, while still using elements so opposite and blending them. The objects in his painting are seen as visually and thematically hierarchical... as are farmer and artist (Oedel, Gernes, 134). In the bottom of the painting exist elements that could be indicative of the lower class, like a sketchbook, portfolio, and the drawing. In the top of the painting, there is a picture of Apollo, an obvious sign of power, the artists easel, and the artists head, a sign of genius, centered in the painting. Meanwhile, the farmer is hutch ed over, just out of a Windsor chair, to imply the grounding of the farmer-observer in the real, mortal world of the present (Oedel, Gernes, 134).

Mount points out the extremes of the two classes, and levels them in his paintings, front and center. Simply put, the artist symbolizes urbanism, the farmer agrarianism (Oedel, Gernes, 145), while representing a median of the two. William Sidney Mount successfully captured the vast differences of two social structures during mid-nineteenth century, while taking their differences and transforming them into middle-class relationships. He is described as an American artist who is cultural mediator between an old world, elite tradition and a new, democratic order (Oedel, Gernes, 144-145). His painting, The Painters Triumph, is the perfect blend of the two extremes to draw attention to a common ground, the middle-class.

He does this in order to harmonize and homogenize his society by leveling the extremes of both elitism and anti-intellectualism (Oedel, Gernes, 145). Even though Mounts technique is seen as elementary, and he tried to overcome his deficiency as a colorist as one critic put it, he is able to draw hierarchical relationships in his paintings only to erase them (Oedel, Gernes, 145). In portraying the farmer and the artist as coequals in society, Mount creates a new class- the middle-class- through his art.