The text at the bottom of this painting states that Señor Moya became the visitador (royal official) viceroy, and archbishop of New Spain on August 18, 1570. As archbishop and visitador, he was the head of the Catholic church in the areas we now know as Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico, Cuba, and Florida. He aimed to grow the church, ensure profitability, and oversee those who worked for the church. He was known as a fair leader who sought to outlaw the enslavement of native peoples.

Bierstadt made this study for a larger work depicting a pass through the Sierra Nevada mountains, several hundred feet above the Central Pacific Railroad. Here we see the sun rise beyond the distant Washoe Mountains, casting an ethereal glow over Donner Lake. To paint this scene, Bierstadt and his wife set out for San Francisco in July 1871. En route, they crossed the summit of the Sierras only 400 feet north of the wagon road that the doomed Donner Party had failed to reach in 1847.

This painting was based on a photograph that Sheeler took as part of a commission from Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, who hired him to document the recently restored Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia in 1935. This interior depicted the reconstruction of the kitchen in the Governor’s Palace—the original building, left in ruins by a fire in 1781, was rebuilt and elegantly furnished in the Colonial Revival style in the 1930s.

The title of this painting and the subject depicted suggest that it was based on observations Ault made of his family’s business, which processed ink for printing presses. Although the scene is based in reality, Ault simplified and abstracted the worker, the equipment, and the architecture, making the man’s labor feel eerily still. The composition resembles a series of interlocking geometric shapes, including a figure eight, a symbol for infinity, which suggests the repetitive nature of the task.

Demuth employed a subtle joke in the title of this painting, referring to his family’s home in industrial Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as “the château,” as if it were a French country estate. His title shifts the subject of his painting, suggesting that signs of power and prestige could also be found in the industrial American landscape. Demuth asks us to consider the perceived differences between a fancy French château and urban life in the United States. Are these two ways of living so different?

Because Bard’s paintings were typically commissioned by ship owners, they avoided depicting the dangers of steamboats, which sometimes burned and sank when their overheated boilers exploded. The Syracuse, whose paddle-wheel box bears imagery of the sun rising behind that city’s modern industrial factories, was owned by the Schuyler Steam Towboat Company, founded in 1825 by Samuel Schuyler, a free African American who bore the name of one of New York’s oldest Dutch colonial families.

When this painting was exhibited in 1887, it was described as having “brilliant autumnal foliage.” Cropsey was known for his fall landscapes, which created a sensation abroad. When his Autumn—On the Hudson River (1860) was shown in London, the painting stirred suspicion among skeptical viewers, who had never seen such colorful foliage. To prove the authenticity of the scene, Cropsey had autumn leaves sent from America and scattered them beneath the painting.

This scene takes place in the humble home of a young Civil War veteran who has been disabled by the loss of a leg. A pension claim agent sits at the table, pen in hand, listening to the soldier’s story. His family members sit nearby, quietly completing their respective domestic tasks, as they listen to the young man plead his case. Johnson’s sensitive portrayal of these characters invites the viewer to consider their relationships and their social and economic status.

This landscape was painted in Noordwijk, on the Dutch coast—one of Raphael’s favorite painting locales. This sunlit landscape, with its visible brushstrokes and free use of color, suggests the influence of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, styles that Raphael encountered during his decades living in Europe. Spring Winds was one of six paintings he exhibited at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, for which he was awarded a silver medal.

The bright palette and dreamlike qualities of this painting suggest that Klumpke was aware of progressive contemporary art movements, such as Impressionism and Symbolism. Although lilies are a traditional symbol of youth and purity, the figure in this painting looks like she somehow has had to confront the end of her innocence. The artist painted two similar pictures of young girls in nymphlike poses and settings—all three works were shown at the Paris Salon and later reproduced as postcards.