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Seeing High And (1939), in Greenberg, Art and Culture: Critical Es- Crow has also observed that Schapiro perceived says (Boston: Beacon Press, 1965), pp. 3–4, 8. overlaps between modernism and popular culture 61. Ibid., pp. 9, 10, 11. in his early work of the 1930s. Thomas Crow, “Mod- 62. Ibid., pp. 19, 21. ernism and Mass Culture in the Visual Arts,” in 63. Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, Di- Modern Art in the Common Culture (New Haven, alectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments, ed. Conn.: Yale University Press, 1996), pp. 12–15. G. S. Noerr, trans. E. Jephcott (1947; rpt. Stanford, 67. Lewis Mumford, “Letters from Our Friends,” Art ONE Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2002). Front 1 (November 1934): n.p. 64. Storey, Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, p. 102. 68. Patricia Johnston, Real Fantasies: Edward Steichen’s These critics were associated with the Institute for Advertising Photography (Berkeley: University of EDUCATING FOR DISTINCTION? Social Research at the University of Frankfurt, which California Press, 1997), pp. 35–39. ART, HIERARCHY, AND CHARLES WILLSON PEALE’S STAIRCASE GROUP was established in 1923. It was disbanded after 69. Crow, “Modernism and Mass Culture,” pp. 33–34. Hitler came to power in 1933 but continued in the 70. Ibid., pp. 36–37. United States and then Germany after the war. 71. Cullen, The Art of Democracy, p. 30. DAVID STEINBERG 65. F. R. Leavis, Mass Civilization and Minority Culture 72. Ibid., p. 31. (Cambridge: Minority Press, 1930), pp. 3, 10; Q. D. 73. Stuart Hall, “Notes on Deconstructing the Popu- Leavis, Fiction and the Reading Public (1932; rpt. lar,” in People’ s History and Socialist Theory, ed. London: Chatto and Windus, 1978), p. 54. Both Ralph Samuel (London: Routledge and Kegan quoted in Storey, Cultural Theory and Popular Cul- Paul, 1981), p. 238. Quoted in Storey, Cultural The- ture, p. 29. ory and Popular Culture, p. 15. 66. Meyer Schapiro, “Public Use of Art,” Art Front 2 74. Huyssen, “High/Low in an Expanded Field,” p. IN MAY 1795 a hundred-dollar prize awaited the vic- fine arts among early national practices and ideas— (November 1936): 4–6; quote on p. 4. Thomas 369. tor of an essay contest inspired by the ongoing na- that art should elevate one’s taste, for example, and tional conversation about education in the new re- that it should refine a person. The Philosophical So- public. Sponsored by the American Philosophical ciety’s specification of a system of “literary in- Society held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful struction” indicates a bias for the verbal over the vi- Knowledge, the competition sought entries de- sual that continues to inform analysis of the period. scribing “the best system of liberal education, and But Philosophical Society member, artist, and mu- literary instruction, adapted to the genius of the gov- seum proprietor Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827) ernment, and best calculated to promote the general intended several of his paintings to teach citizens welfare of the United States.” Filled with expectations what he considered important lessons in living vir- and concerns after acceptance of the federal consti- tuous, fulfilling lives. He designed his now-famous tution in 1788, citizens discussed the relationship of Staircase Group with such a useful, educational ini- education to several interlocking sets of needs. One tiative in mind (Fig. 1.1). set centered on the novel experiment of a federal, re- Coincidently, the week after the Philosophical publican (that is, representative) government. Amer- Society announced its contest, Peale’s painting de- icans recognized that to assure their country’s suc- buted at a unique six-week exhibition in the Sen- cess, they must cultivate a virtuous, informed ate Chamber of the Pennsylvania State House, a citizenry, possibly by allocating to common schools building now known as Independence Hall. (Phila- a role in preparing those with ability and virtue to delphia was then the national capital, and the fed- lead. Yet promoting “the general welfare” made ad- eral legislature met in the adjacent Congress Hall.) ditional demands on education.1 The show was organized by the Columbianum, the When considering this issue, historians have first professional artists’ association in the United tended to identify only the broadest roles for the States, which was founded earlier that year by Peale 24 PATRICIA JOHNSTON 25 This rarity aªected Peale as much as anyone. He of a picture frame) surrounded the canvas, a car- Lord Kames’s famous Elements of Criticism (1762). pursued many careers in his day and was self- pentered step lay on the floor below, and a riser Kames observed, “Those who apply to the arts . taught in all but one, the trade of saddle making, flush with the wall abutted the painting’s bottom are led, step by step, from the easier parts of the in which he had apprenticed. He shared the gen- edge. In this way, a mixed-media ensemble repre- operation, to what are more di‹cult; and are not eral enthusiasm for diªusing aspects of the liberal sented a rectangular stairwell articulated by a se- permitted to make a new motion, till they are per- arts curriculum long associated with society’s elite, quence of steps, one supporting a stray ticket to fected in those which go before.”10 Peale might then known as the better sort. His own experience, Peale’s Museum and higher ones supporting Peale’s have known this passage; it was familiar to Joseph however, emphasized what Joseph F. Kett has re- eldest son, Raphaelle, who was twenty-one in 1795. Hopkinson, son of his old friend Francis Hopkin- cently discussed as “the pursuit of knowledge un- Another of Peale’s sons, Titian, who was fifteen, son and a contributor to the Columbianum exhi- der di‹culties”—an approach to education that leans into the space; he presumably stands on a still bition catalogue.11 The notion of artistic eªort as figure 1.1 stood (and still stands) as a counterpart to unin- higher step and maintains balance with his right an uphill climb directed toward a literally lofty place Charles Willson 5 Peale, Staircase terrupted, sequential schooling. arm. The reminiscences by the Peales flatter the draws on the ancient iconography of Mount Par- Group (Portrait of Peale planned the Staircase Group for the early Staircase Group and attribute to the elder Peale a ca- nassus, abode of the nine Muses. Although in clas- Raphaelle Peale national situation. The way in which the painting pacity to create perfect illusions. sical thought painting had no muse, contempo- and Titian taught accommodated autodidacts: it eased them Discussions of the Staircase Group by art histo- raries conventionally understood Parnassus as a Ramsay Peale), step by step into “higher” approaches to its imagery. rians have usually centered on this point,8 yet site marking achievement in the arts broadly installed with To begin, all one had to do was pay the not in- Raphaelle’s attributes indicate that Charles Willson defined. John Singleton Copley invoked this imag- modern door frame and step, substantial entry fee of twenty-five cents to the Peale had additional intentions. Why has the young inary place when waxing enthusiastic about the 1795. Philadelphia Columbianum or to Peale’s Museum. This ques- man brought a bundle of brushes and a palette set London career of his fellow countryman Benjamin Museum of Art, tion of money turns us toward another way that with diªerent pigments onto a staircase? His mahl- West: “I sincerely rejoice in Mr West’s successfull The George W. Peale crafted the painting with respect to circum- stick is similarly problematic. This device (whose progress towards the summit of that Mighty Moun- Elkins Collection. stances. While sophisticated strategies for inter- name derives from the German malen, “to paint”) tain where the Everlasting Lauriels grow to adoarn preting art had been associated only with better-sort steadied the hand of an artist applying paint to an the brows of those Elustrious Artists that are so and others. In addition to publicizing the group’s aim observers, Peale intended the Staircase Group to cul- easel picture. A right-handed painter, like the one favourd of Heaven as to be able to unravel the in- and raising funds for its academy, the show provided tivate such approaches among middling sorts. Yet in Johannes Vermeer’s Art of Painting, would hold tricate mazes of its rough and perilous Asent.”12 Peale with the occasion to make and display the Stair- for all that, what it oªered was less a quasi-egalitarian the stick in his left hand, balance its far end along The conventional coupling of progress in the arts case Group.2 Anticipating the painting’s potential for experience than a new version of elitism. one of the picture’s edges, and rest his brush-hold- with the progress of a civilization pointed inter- multiple uses from the outset, however, he also con- ing right hand on the stick’s side. Raphaelle’s stick, preters of the Staircase Group to a national allegory. ceived it as a permanent installation for Peale’s Mu- held as if it were a climbing aid, is a visual pun, sub- The rise of the United States was the keynote of the SUCCESSIVE MODES OF ENGAGEMENT seum, the collection of art, artifacts, and natural his- stituting one thing for another in a way that draws exhibition according to the unreferenced quotation tory specimens he had recently moved to the George Washington, spying the Staircase Group in attention to their similarities. on the catalogue cover: “’Tis not in mortals to com- Philosophical Society’s Philosophical Hall. After the Peale’s Museum, reportedly “bowed politely to the As incongruous elements, Raphaelle’s brushes, mand success, / But we’ll do more, Sempronius, we’ll de- Columbianum show closed, Peale reinstalled the painted figures, which he afterwards acknowledged palette, and mahlstick complicate the picture.
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