This exhibition features twenty-two of the singularly idiosyncratic landscapes produced by Thomas Chambers, one of the earliest American artists to specialize in the genre of landscape painting for commercial production. As the first artist working in America to make landscape painting accessible to a wider audience and broader socioeconomic class, Chambers tapped into the fascination and interest in travel and exploration.
American Storybook explores various themes and ideas surrounding the American landscape, such as rural and urban development, exploration of the frontier and its surrounding waterways, the desire and/or need to document topography and geography, and the economics and demand for such pictures. Who were the early audiences for these pictures? Were they the same collectors who soon clamored for the work produced by the artists of the Hudson River School? What influence, if any, did Chambers have on the artists of the Hudson River School?
