Sunset Glow (verso) 1897

Thomas Pollock Anshutz made this watercolor painting, Sunset Glow, in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Its subject matter is unassuming: two boats, cast aside among long grasses in a marshy landscape. Anshutz was a Pennsylvania artist who taught at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. This institution played a key role in defining the artistic style of the era. Anshutz's early work was in the style of social realism. He later adopted an impressionistic style that allowed him to capture the effects of light, seen here in the sunset. One might ask how Anshutz’s status as a teacher in a hierarchical art institution is reflected in the subject matter of the painting. Does the discarded boat reflect an artist questioning his own place in the institution? The interpretation of art is never fixed, and the role of the historian is to provide context to the meaning of art. Art catalogues, artist’s letters, and institutional records can all help to shed light on the meaning of art as something that is contingent on social and institutional context.