Our list of American history facts is a great starting point for anyone looking to explore the visual history of the United States, whether you’re interested in the colonial era or modern art.
From Virgina to California, Gilbert Stuart to Andy Warhol – these artists, artworks and galleries have served inspiration to the American people for generations. We hope you enjoy reading our 50 American art history facts…
1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the most-visited museum in the United States and the fourth largest in the world.
2. Although he is best known for the development of Morse code, Samuel Morse was also a distinguished painter.
3. 19th century portraitist Ammi Phillips has been attributed to over eight hundred paintings, but only eleven are signed.
4. In 2006, a boy stuck a piece of chewing gum on Helen Frankenthaler’s $1.5 million artwork The Bay at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Luckily, the museum’s conservators successfully restored the damage.
5. Thomas Sully’s career was 70 years long, allowing him to paint portraits of everyone from Thomas Jefferson to Queen Victoria.
Above: detail from a portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, 1795
6. The Athenaeum Portrait by Gilbert Stuart is one of the most famous portraits in the world. It is the original depiction of George Washington used on the dollar bill. The painting was purposely left unfinished, as Gilbert Stuart used it to compose many copies.
7. Bob Ross would bring baby squirrels and birds onto set and kept them in his shirt whilst painting.
8. President Dwight D. Eisenhower painted over 250 oil paintings.
9. Although Benjamin West was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, he spent much of his life working in the court of King George III and was the keeper of the royal paintings until his death in 1791.
10. James McNeill Whistler signed his paintings with a butterfly symbol.
Above: detail from a lithograph of New York in 1866
11. One of Roy Lichtenstein’s first works to use his iconic pop art style was inspired by his son reading a Mickey Mouse comic book and exclaiming “I bet you can’t paint as good as that, Dad!”
12. Winslow Homer gave this advice to fellow artists – “Look at nature, work independently, and solve your own problems.”
13. Portraits by Jeremiah Theus are often very similar to each other and therefore easy to spot. His style usually includes long noses, eyes that are a little too close together and dimpled chins
14. Masterpiece is an art auctioneer board game from 1970. The art used on the pieces is from the Art Institute of Chicago.
15. Portraitist John Trumbull only had the use of one eye due to a childhood accident.
Above: detail from a portrait of Mrs. Noah Smith and Her Children in Vermont by Ralph Earl, 1798
16. The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. stands on the former Baltimore and Potomac Station, site of the James Garfield assassination in 1881.
17. Rembrandt Peale was the son of portraitist Charles Willson Peale. His siblings were also named after famous artists – Rubens, Angelica Kauffman, Raphael, Sophonisba Angusciola and Titian Ramsay.
18. The statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Capitol rotunda is by Vinnie Ream, the youngest artist and first woman to receive a commission from the US government.
19. The 1962 Campbell’s Soup collection by Andy Warhol comes in a set of 32, each representing a different soup variety the company sold that year. Warhol never gave instructions on how to display them, so the Museum of Modern Art in New York exhibited them in order of flavors as they were introduced to the public.
20. Robert De Niro’s father (Robert De Niro Sr.) was an abstract expressionist painter.
Above: detail from On Bos’n’s Hill, New Hampshire by Edmund C. Tarbell, 1901
21. 18th century artist John Smibert opened a supplies shop in 1734, it included a display of Old Master paintings and sculptures that he had copied in Europe. Smibert’s shop has since been called America’s first art gallery.
22. The Japanese art collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is the largest in the world outside of Japan. It includes over 30,000 ukiyo-e prints, 4,000 paintings and 5,000 ceramics.
23. Edward Hopper’s wife modeled for every female figure in his work.
24. Hiram Powers created a sculptural bust of President Andrew Jackson in the style of a Roman Emperor.
25. The original version of Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze was housed at a German museum and destroyed by a bombing raid in World War II.
Above: detail from Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, 1851
26. Deaf from birth, New England artist John Brewster Junior was taught to paint by a local minister. It is said that the facial expressions in his portraits show more detail than his peers, thanks to reading faces and lips to communicate.
27. Edward Kemeys created the two lion statues that guard the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago. Over Christmas, they wear wreaths around their necks and on game days, they have been known to wear team uniforms.
28. A group of romantic landscape painters formed the Hudson River School in the 19th century. They are known for their dramatic use of sunlight and scenes of natural beauty.
29. Jasper Francis Cropsey taught himself to draw in the margins of his school books.
30. Mary Blair created concept art for many Disney films in the mid 20th century. Her style had such influence that it can still be seen throughout the ‘its a small world’ attraction and in the main lobby of Disney’s Contemporary Resort.
Above: detail from Allies Day, May 1917 by Childe Hassam, 1917
31. American Impressionist Childe Hassam painted 30 depictions of US streets adorned with flags. These artworks reflect a sense of patriotism during the First World War.
32. Discarded cigarette butts can sometimes be found within Jackson Pollock’s paintings.
33. When the U.S. Postal Service released The Statue of Liberty Forever stamps in 2010 they accidentally used an image of the Las Vegas replica rather than the real Statue of Liberty.
34. Dada artist Man Ray named his dog ‘Lampshade’.
35. The Charleston Museum was established in 1773, making it America’s oldest museum.
Above: detail from View from Mount Holyoke in Northampton, Massachusetts – The Oxbow by Thomas Cole, 1836
36. Basquiat dated Madonna before she was famous. When he broke up with her, he took back all the paintings he’d gifted and painted over them.
37. Norman Rockwell used neighbors and local townspeople as his models.
38. Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky is a dramatic depiction by Benjamin West. The artist infuses the portrait with the themes of European ‘history painting’ and uses neoclassical influence to enhance the virtues of the sitter.
39. Grant Wood used his sister and his dentist to model for American Gothic.
40. Shot Sage Blue Marilyn by Andy Warhol is the most expensive artwork by an American artist ever sold. It reached $195 million at auction in 2022.
Above: detail from Central Park, Winter: The Skating Pond by Nathaniel Currier, 1862
41. Washington Allston was sometimes referred to as the American Titian due to the renaissance influence in his art.
42. Trumbull was interred with his wife beneath the Yale University Art Gallery.
43. Keith Haring created a carousel for André Heller’s Luna Luna art amusement park.
44. Joseph Badger’s 1757 portrait of Rebecca Orne shows her with a pet squirrel – a fashionable pet and a symbol of her taming any wild childhood temperament.
45. Luminism is an American art style that focuses on the ethereal light of a landscape, often depicting a calm scene with a smooth finish. Fur Traders Descending the Missouri by George Caleb Bingham (below) is one of the best known examples.
Above: detail from Fur Traders Descending the Missouri by George Caleb Bingham, 1845
46. Charles Willson Peale composed over 60 portraits of George Washington. His masterpiece ‘Washington at Princeton’ sold for a record breaking $21.3 million in 2005.
47. Watson and the Shark is a dramatic and highly unusual painting by Boston artist John Singleton Copley. It depicts a shark attack that occurred in 1749, commissioned by the man who lost his leg in the incident. Copley completed the painting despite never visiting Cuba or witnessing a shark.
48. Andy Warhol had 25 cats named Sam… and one named Hester.
49. John White was grandfather to Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America. His watercolour paintings of Roanoke Island and the native Algonkin people now form important visual records of the East Coast in the 16th century.
50. Gilbert Stuart is one of the most well known American portrait painters. He composed paintings of over 1,000 people, including the first six American Presidents. Despite his fame, Stuart had severe issues with debt and was buried in an unmarked grave.
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