Art in the United States from Reconstruction to World War II

Dr. Kimberly Rhodes, NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities & Professor of Art History, Drew University

Wednesday afternoons, 1:30 – 3:30 pm
April 10, 24, May 1, 8, and 22 (skipping April 17 and May 15 due to other events scheduled at the library)

In this course, we will study the development of the visual arts in the United States from Reconstruction to the 1930s. Topics will include the discussion of exchange between European and American artists, the education of American artists in Europe and the United States, the relationship between political events and visual culture, and the rise of modernism. We will study the work of such artists as Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Thomas Hart Benton.

Dr. Kimberly Rhodes (Ph.D., Columbia University) occupies the positions of National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Art History at Drew University in Madison, NJ. Her teaching areas at Drew include 19th-century and 20th-century European and American art, contemporary art, and the history of photography. She is the author of numerous publications regarding the figure of Ophelia in Victorian and contemporary visual culture, including the book Ophelia and Victorian Visual Culture: Representing Body Politics in the Nineteenth Century (Ashgate, 2008). Her most recent work investigates the representation of deer in British visual culture through an ecocritical lens, featuring published essays on such various topics as John Constable’s views of the deer park at Helmingham Hall, the depiction of deer hunting in the Netflix series The Crown, and the encounter of Jaques and the wounded stag in William Shakespeare’s play As You Like It.

Classes will be held at the Florham Park Library

107 Ridgedale Avenue, Florham Park, NJ  07932