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This is a three-part perspective on a single work of art: Edward Savage's The Washington Family (1789–96). Mia L. Bagneris's essay places this painting alongside other images of George Washington with African diasporic subjects from the eighteenth century to the present to illuminate how the iconic image of the founding father—upheld as a symbol of the values of the nation itself—was and is inextricably bound up in White supremacy and anti-Blackness. Jennifer Van Horn's analysis is cartographic in focus, situating the painting in relation to geographic debates about slavery and the racialized contest over mobility in light of the relocation of the enslaved person depicted, and in relation to a second version of the image displayed at Henry Clay's Kentucky plantation. Jennifer Germann uncovers the hidden history of the painting's London creation to explore Savage's choice of the enslaved attendant portrait format, and his selection of free Black model John Riley, amidst the uncertainty surrounding the portrayal of Black figures in the 1780s and 1790s. She elucidates how disremembering has obscured John Riley as well as historical Black subjects in American art more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The canon of "American" art history is shaped just as much by its absences as it is by its inclusions. We must learn to see those absences; we must make present those who are absent; and we must demonstrate the racializing work performed by the absences themselves. Critical to this process is exposure to an encyclopedic collection of art at the Smithsonian campus and in the surrounding D.C. area. Additionally, opportunities like that afforded by the SAAM fellowship offers the specialist the chance to literally see their subject in the broader context of their time period as well as within the visual histories of nation-building. The SAAM fellowship also allows one to test—against the visual record—the more limited content that has been featured in coursework, exhibitions, publications, and as topics worthy of funding. In this paper, the author foregrounds compositional absences in two- and three-dimensional works of art to argue that the future of SAAM's fellowship program and the field at large must involve an examination of its greatest absence: a critical look at how race is constructed in the museum's canonical Anglo-American collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Thomas Waterman Wood's 1867 painting American Citizens , which depicts four voters, one of whom is an African American. Past interpretations have emphasized themes of equality and citizenship that must be reconsidered in light of nineteenth-century voting practices. As a means to understand American Citizens in a larger historical context, this article looks at the rhetoric of race and citizenship surrounding the extension of the franchise, the structures of nineteenth-century voting, and the means by which visual typologies were mobilized for partisan ends. Exercising the franchise was a public, often spectacular, event that placed voters in a visual context that served to affirm or deny citizenship and manliness. Treatment of voters was often based on visual cues combining references from genre painting, journalism, and popular culture. While celebrating the extension of the franchise to men of color, Wood's painting also replicates the process of visually identifying race and ethnicity, often for detrimental ends, within American political life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the artist Marsden Hartley and his work. It examines the role of race in Hartley's art and writing and discusses criticism of his paintings. The book "Marsden Hartley: Race, Region, and Nation" by Donna Cassidy is mentioned. The philosophy of eugenics is explored for its role in perceptions about race and influence in Hartley's art. Hartley's piece "Finnish-Yankee Sauna" is also analyzed and other art works involving saunas are discussed.

A call for papers is presented, which asks for submissions on the topic of "Seeing the Survey Anew: White Racial Formation in the History of Art."