Women and the Aesthetics Movement
Post Civil War art movement, of American artists who had traveled to Europe and Asia -- the ìGilded Ageî or ìAmerican Renaissanceî
ìAesthetics Movementî a divergence from previous ìmoralistî schools of art (Pohl p.270)
Focused on the ìpure aestheticsî (ìartî quality) of art
ìarts for artís sakeî = focus on the quality of the art itself, not any moral story built into it -- Whistlerís statement on p.270
Highly artificial and idealized; influenced by European and Oriental (Japanese) art -- eventually became American Impressionism
Whistler, Sargent, Thayer, Chase, Beaux, Cassatt