COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0000415
image_record_id
aahi0000415
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
The Muse: Susan Morse
Image Title:
full view
Work Description:
portrait of Susan Morse, daughter of Samuel F. B. Morse and his first wife, Lucretia Pickering Walker Morse
Work Dates (display):
ca. 1835-1837
Work Dates type:
creation
Work Creator (display):
Samuel Finley Breese Morse (American, 1791-1872)
Work Creator gender:
male
work_creator_or_agent_gender
male
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
American painter and inventor. The son of a Calvinist minister, he began amateur sketching while a student at Yale College, New Haven, CT. After graduating in 1810, he returned to Charlestown, MA, to paint family portraits. In Boston in the same year he met Washington Allston, recently returned from Italy, under whose tutelage he executed his first history painting, the Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth (c. 181011; Boston, MA, Pub. Lib.). He joined Allston on his trip to London in 1811, enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools and also studied privately with Allston and Benjamin West. Morse's Dying Hercules (181213; New Haven, CT, Yale U. A.G.), based on the pose and musculature of the Laokoon (Rome, Vatican, Mus. Pio-Clementino) and the theory evident in Allston's Dead Man Restored to Life by Touching the Bones of the Prophet Elisha (181114; Philadelphia, PA Acad. F.A.), was critically acclaimed when exhibited at the Royal Academy and is indicative of Morse's academic interests. After two trips in 1813 and 1814 to Bristol, where he painted a number of portraits and small subject pieces, Morse ended his period in England with another mythological history painting, the Judgement of Jupiter (181415; New Haven, CT, Yale U. A.G.) Morse received critical praise but little financial reward from the exhibition of his London pictures on his return to Boston in 1815, and as a result he turned to portraiture to earn a living. After two difficult years travelling through New England, he made the first of four annual trips early in 1818 to Charleston, SC, where he painted dozens of portraits. That of his wife, Lucretia Pickering Walker Morse (c. 181819; Amherst Coll., MA, Mead A. Mus.), shows the influence of Gilbert Stuart in its painterly technique and bold colour. Morse's later portraits in Charleston are closer in style to the fluid elegance of Thomas Sully. Having profited both artistically and financially from his time in Charleston, Morse painted his first mature American history picture, the House of Representatives (2.20×3.33 m, 18223; Washington, DC, Corcoran Gal. A.). His largest work, it depicts Benjamin Henry Latrobe's newly renovated Hall of Congress and over 80 portraits of congressmen, Supreme Court justices, journalists, a Pawnee Indian and the artist's father. Morse hoped to demonstrate to a mass audience the rationality, morality and gentility of the American system of government; but because of its emblematic nature and the narrative expectations of the viewing public, the exhibition of the House in New Haven, Boston and New York was a popular and financial disaster, forcing Morse to return to portraiture. In New Haven during the early 1820s Morse painted figures in and around the Yale University community, such as Eli Whitney, Benjamin Silliman (both New Haven, CT, Yale U. A.G.) and Noah Webster (Amherst Coll., MA, Mead A. Mus.). Moving late in 1824 to New York, which became his permanent home, Morse reached the apex of his career. He painted many of the city's literary and political leaders, including romantic portraits of William Cullen Bryant (c. 1826; New York, N. Acad. Des.) and DeWitt Clinton (1826; New York, Met.). His most important portrait commission of this period, for the City of New York, was of the Marquis de Lafayette (18256; New York, City Hall), who was on a triumphant tour of the USA on the occasion of the semi-centennial of the American Revolution. Full-length and life-size, the portrait represents a departure in the grand-style American portrait. Unlike the static classical pose that had dominated American portraiture (e.g. Gilbert Stuart's 'Lansdowne' Washington, 1796; Philadelphia, PA Acad. F.A.), Morse's Lafayette shows the figure in action, a style influenced by the portraits of Sir Thomas Lawrence. During this period Morse also worked for literary publications, painted a few landscapes and founded the National Academy of Design, New York, of which he was the first president. Morse travelled to Europe in 1829, spending a year in Italy, where he studied thousands of Old Master pictures, astutely copied some, including Tintoretto's Miracle of the Slave (1548; Venice, Accad.; copy, 1831; Boston, MA, Mus. F.A.), and sketched and painted landscapes such as his beautiful Chapel of the Virgin at Subiaco (1831; Worcester, MA, A. Mus.). In mid-1831 he was in Paris, where he began the Gallery of the Louvre (18323; Chicago, IL, Terra Mus. Amer. A.; see fig.). A pantheon of the Louvre's masterpieces assembled in Morse's imagination in the Salon Carré, the work, exemplifying his artistic skill, is Morse's attempt to provide Americans with an awareness of their artistic patrimony. However, like the House of Representatives before it, the Louvre was not a popular success when exhibited in New York in 1833. The failure of the Louvre, coupled with the decision of the US Congress not to commission Morse to paint a mural in the Capitol Rotunda, signalled the waning of his artistic career. He continued as President of the National Academy until 1845, was appointed Professor of the Literature of the Arts of Design at New York University in 1834 and painted a few spectacular pictures in the 1830s, such as the chromatically brilliant portrait of his daughter Susan, The Muse (18367; New York, Met.). Morse's time was increasingly absorbed by politics, science and technology. In 1839, after meeting Daguerre in Paris, Morse publicized the daguerreotype process in the USA and became one of its earliest practitioners, opening a portrait studio with John William Draper (181182) in New York in 1840. In the late 1830s he developed the first practical electromagnetic telegraph and signalling code. After successfully demonstrating the revolutionary instrument before Congress in 1844 and building a telegraphic empire, Morse became the most honoured inventor in 19th-century America. (Grove Art Online Accessed 2006-07-28)
Work Style Period:
19th century
work_styleperiod
19th century
Work Style Period
false
Work Subject:
women (female humans)
subject
women (female humans)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
kraters
subject
kraters
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
Muses (Greek deities)
subject
Muses (Greek deities)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
classicism
subject
classicism
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
allegories
subject
allegories
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
portraits
subject
portraits
Work Subject
false
Work Worktype:
paintings (visual works)
work_type
paintings (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
paintings
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
paintings
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
paint
Work Measurements (display):
188 cm (H) x 147.3 cm (W)
Work Location (Repository or Site) name:
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
Work Location (Repository or Site) role:
repository
Work Location (Repository or Site) refid:
45.62.1
Work Location (Repository or Site) refid type:
accession
Work Location (Geographic) name:
New York, New York
Image Rights (display):
© Ronald Wiedenhoeft. Licensed for educational use via Scholars Resource: Saskia, Ltd.
Image Rights license agreement:
SASKIA, LTD.: WHO CAN USE THIS SOFTWARE: (a) Licensee, including faculty, staff and currently enrolled students may use the Licensed Software to display and or print the corresponding graphic images without limitation for teaching and research purposes at the defined Sites, or at remote locations having electronic access to your Site(s). (b) This license include permission to use the Licensed Software on a multi-user network at the defined Site, and to permit remote access to a computer/server located at your Site. Simultaneous display in multiple locations at or connected to the Site is also permitted. (c) Licensee agrees to employ reasonable security measures designed to limit access to your faculty, staff and currently enrolled students. PROHIBITED USES AND LIMITATIONS: (a) Saskia hereby reserves all rights not expressly granted herein. (b) the License Software may not be used for preparaiton of any publication, scholarly or otherwise; or for any purpose other than teaching or research. Publication of an image from the Licensed Software requires a separate license from Saskia. (c) Licensee agrees not to resell, lease, transfer, sub-license or otherwise distribute a copy of the Licensed Software, or any image taken from the Licensed Software, in whole or in part. (d) Licensee also agrees not to modify, corrupt or alter any digital image graphic content or "digital watermark" or the like in the software provided by Saskia under this Agreement. (e) Licensee agrees not to remove, alter, cover or distort Saskia's copyright notice, trademark, or other proprietary rights notice placed by Saskia in the Licensed Software itself, or in the associated packaging, media or documentation. (f) And Licensee agrees to notify users of the Licensed Software, in writing or by sign-on screen display, of their obligations under this Agreement and solicit their cooperation and compliance with such obligations.
Work Rights (display):
public domain
Terms of Agreement and Conditions of Use:
YOU AGREE: Luna Imaging's Insight Software and the digital image collection associated with it (the Software) are being provided by the University of Colorado under the following license. By obtaining, using, and/or copying this work, you (the Licensee) agree that you have read, understood, and will comply with the following terms and conditions. 1. The Software contains the University of Colorado's Department of Art and Art History's implementation of a digital image collection; 2. Any images obtained through use of the Software will be used only for non-profit, educational purposes; 3. The use of images obtained through the software will only be used while the Licensee is either: a) an employee of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver, or b) an enrolled student at the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver; 4. When the Licensee is no longer an employee or student of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or Community College of Denver, either by an action of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or the Community College of Denver or due to actions of the Licensee, the licensee will cease to use any images exported from the Department of Art and Art History's digital image collection; 5. The Licensee agrees to indemnify the University for claims and liability arising out of the use of the Software or for any violations of this license; 6. THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SUPPLIES THE SOFTWARE WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Center
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see