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10-C Maine Antique Digest, March 2015
- FEATURE -
AmericanNeoclassicism—JeffersonversusEmerson
by Bob Frishman
W
hen Ralph Waldo Emerson addressed Harvard’s Phi Beta
Kappa Society in August 1837, he declared that it was time for
our nation’s culture to declare independence from European
influences. In “The American Scholar,” he rejected Federalist and Neo-
classical principles embraced by post-Revolution leaders who viewed
the new nation as a reincarnation of ancient Athens and Rome. While
thousands of American public buildings continue to look like Greek
temples, hundreds of thousands of American private homes feature
pillars and pediments, and uncounted numbers of American furniture
pieces incorporate carved columns, swags, leaves, and urns, by 1840 the
country was turning away from Classical ideals and developing fresh
American styles and philosophies.
On the weekend of November 14-16, 2014, I was one of 80 partic-
ipants in Deerfield, Massachusetts, at Historic Deerfield’s 2014 Dec-
orative Arts Forum. The 2014 theme and forum title was “Borrowing
from Antiquity to Design a New Republic: Neoclassicism in America.”
Well-known curators, collectors, and restorers were speakers and were
in the audience, and all contributed to better understandings of the roots
and consequences of Classical influences on our nation’s founding gen-
eration. Skinner auctioneers and appraisers and Thomas Schwenke of
Woodbury, Connecticut, a longtime American Federal furniture expert
and dealer, sponsored the event.
Some of us arrived early on Friday afternoon for optional workshops
prior to the opening reception, and I chose “Inspired by Pompeii: Neo-
classical Ceramics for the American Home,” presented by Amanda
Lange, curatorial department director of Historic Deerfield. Seated
around a padded table in the backstage Esleek Room of the Flynt Cen-
ter of Early American Life, a small group of us was shown and could
handle ceramics in the Neoclassical style. With their restrained and
symmetrical ornamentation, these candlesticks, teapots, urns, and plates
were strikingly different from their Rococo predecessors encrusted with
frivolous decorations. As in several subsequent presentations, we were
reminded that the discovery in the early 1700s of Herculaneum and
then the 1748 unearthing of Pompeii triggered a major Western cultural
revival of interest in Classical design. English potters were inspired by
books illustrating the designs of ancient Roman styles, especially the
four-volume set published by Sir William Hamilton, and their wares
began arriving in America later in the 18th century. Even more ceramics
landed here following the return of the
Empress of China
in 1785 from
the first American shopping spree in Canton, opening the floodgates of
Chinese porcelain (and tea) into our ports.
That evening, in the Deerfield Community Center, where we heard
all subsequent lectures, Philip Zea, president of Historic Deerfield, for-
mally welcomed us. Zea then introduced our lead-off speaker, Wendy
Cooper, recently retired from Winterthur Museum. Most readers will
know something of her lifetime work as a foremost scholar, curator,
and author on American decorative arts. Accompanying her lecture,
“From Vase Backs to Swag Backs: Classical Furniture in New England,
1785-1825,” were many projected images of ancient art and architec-
ture, some taken during her recent visit to Sicily. These were followed
by examples of those designs applied to Paul Revere silver, Seymour
tables and desks, and iconic Federal furniture from the Kaufman collec-
tion of American furniture at the National Gallery of Art. The donation
of this premier collection provides Washington, D.C., museum-goers
with examples otherwise not available, unless they have access to the
State Department or White House. George Kaufman is deceased, but his
widow, Linda, was with us during the weekend.
The next morning, Gordon S. Wood presented “The Revolutionary
Origins of American Culture.” Wood, a Brown University emeritus
professor of history, is the author of prize-winning books and import-
ant articles on the American Revolutionary period. He noted that many
contemporary historians share Emerson’s conviction that our Revolu-
tion-era leaders were too imitative of and dependent on European cul-
tural influences, but he disagrees. Professor Wood believes that while
Jefferson and his peers embraced those principles, they sought to enlarge
and enhance the ideals to apply to all people, not just to elites and roy-
alty. Jefferson spent five years in Europe representing his homeland and
on his return believed that art would transform culture, not just serve
as entertainment for the rich, and would provide moral and educational
inspiration to an enlightened citizenry.
Diplomatic ministers and consuls based in Europe after the Revolu-
tionary War imbibed Classical aesthetics and returned home with the
ideals, fashions, and artifacts. Artists, such as John Trumbull and Ralph
Earl, became known as teachers and philosophers advancing truth,
beauty, and virtue, not just as handwork artisans. They offered histori-
cal portraits and a painted record of our Revolution, reminding viewers
of its aspirations and protagonists. Prints and engravings, periodicals,
exhibits, salons, and concert halls all brought refinement and culture to
the rapidly expanding American middle class. Washington, D.C., rose
from swampland to be the new Athens or Rome, its public buildings
recalling the Parthenon, its Goose Creek renamed the Tiber.
By 1840, however, the country had turned away from the Federalists
and their high-minded moralizing, and most Federalist gentlemen grew
disillusioned by the advance of Jacksonian democracy. Fortunately for
later generations, many of them turned from public office to private
philanthropy, and their lasting contributions include the Boston Athe-
naeum and the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. Their
influence remains far more than as a lingering homage to old European
values.
George Washington, often pictured in togas and classic poses, is cer-
tainly the most iconic of our Founding Fathers and the personal embodi-
ment of American Classical style. He devoted 25 years to the creation of
Mount Vernon’s New Room as a design showpiece, picture gallery, and
occasional dining room. Susan Schoelwer, its senior curator, described
that room’s evolution. Begun in 1774, its construction and decoration
The 2014 Historic Deerfield Decorative Arts Forum bro-
chure detail shows the American eagle finial from Deer-
field’s breakfront secretary, Salem, Massachusetts, 1800-10.
Amanda Lange, curatorial depart-
ment director at Historic Deerfield,
showed that Classical objects such
as obelisks were popular decorative
forms. This is one of a pair of circa
1800 English “feldspathic stoneware”
obelisks by Chetham & Woolley of
Longton, Staffordshire County. The
overglaze enamel decoration depicts
“trophies” of musical and military
imagery.
Wendy Cooper’s 1993 landmark book
could be the next stop for readers dig-
ging deeper into American Neoclassi-
cism. My copy’s signed title page also
illustrates a high point of the style.
Gordon S. Wood is the Alva O. Way Uni-
versity Professor and Professor of History
Emeritus, Brown University. His latest
book, the 800-page
Empire of Liberty: A His-
tory of the Early Republic, 1789-1815
, waits
on my nightstand.
George Washington designated this as New Room at Mount Ver-
non. Senior curator Susan Schoelwer described its design, con-
tents, and importance. Photo courtesy Mount Vernon.
Asa Stebbins’s clock now stands back in the room where
it first counted the hours. The brass works and oversize
dial are by Aaron Willard; the ornate case is attributed
to Stephen Badlam.