River or Creek View [Delaware?] (from Sketchbook) 1857 - 1867

Thomas Hewes Hinckley made this pencil drawing, River or Creek View, with the location possibly in Delaware, sometime in the mid-19th century. At the time, the American art world was self-consciously trying to produce its own, unique style. It would not be European. Landscape painting, in particular, came to be seen as expressing the sublime beauty of the American continent. It would be easy to look at a simple sketch like this and miss the fact that the art world of the mid-1800s was dominated by the institutions of the National Academy, and the art unions. The National Academy was dedicated to training artists, and establishing norms of taste, while the art unions were set up to promote and sell American art to a wide public. Hinckley himself was an active member of these institutions. Looking into the records of these organizations, and also into the biographies of artists like Hinckley, is essential to understanding the context of American art in this period. It is through that research that we can start to understand the public role that art played at the time.