Is American "genre" painting considered a stylistic period?

Question

I'm writing a paper on a work presented in a museum. In the paper I have to talk about th e stylistic period that I think the painting represented, for instance Realism, Impressionism, etc. I was going to call the painting as part of the "realism" style, but in doing my research I came across that it was an American "genre" painting. Is American genre painting a style on its own, or is it a type of realism?

What style, if anything, would genre painting be most similar to?

The name of the painting and artist is Cyrus Durand Chapman's "The Wedding Bonnet" - It's a local area painter in a local museum, I doubt if everyone ever heard of him. It was painted in 1856.

Answer 1

My friend, it always helps if you can give us the name of the artist and/or the painting.

But to answer your question there have been several periods in American art history where certain artists and their styles were classified as much by the genre as by the style.

The Regionalisms (like Thomas Hart Benton and Edward Hopper) were lumped together in that genre even though their styles were seldom similar. Likewise with the genre miscalled 'Western' art. Russel, Remington and Albert Bierstadt are all lumped into this category even though their individual styles are worlds apart.

(I think Chapman's style would be called American Romanticism because it was mostly done during that period.)

Answer 2

Generally, I"d say no. It is not a stylistic period. There are periods of time when what we call "genre paintings" were more popular than other styles. It is a style of painting illustrating common everyday scenes and people doing common everyday things. Genre themes appear in most every period of time and even date back to Roman, Greek and Egyptian times. They appear in various cultures such as in Japanese prints. In the west we generally mark the 19th century as a point where genre painting start to become popular. Their popularity was due primarily because religious and historic paintings were starting to fall out of favor. Also, the industrial revolution marked an increase in the middle class, who would purchase "Genre" paintings because of their quaintness and sometime humorous content. See painters Barnes and Rockwell.

Answer 3

american genre painting is an arbitrary term classified primarily form the period that is being discussed. so that one can say american genre painting from 1750 to 1820 or american genre painting of the 19th century, etc. however, american scene painting is a stylistic period, which covers th 1920s to the 1940s. it's defined as a naturalist style of painting (often contradicting the influence of modern styles of the avant-garde europeans). sometimes the term american regionalism is used as well. when defining styles: context.