SPEED ART MUSEUM

Thomas Chambers is renowned for making landscape painting accessible to a wider audience and broader socioeconomic class in the mid-19th century.the Speed Art Museum honors his life in American Storybook: the Imaginary Travelogue of Thomas Chambers, on view through January 6, 2019. With demand for paintings depicting untouched American landscapes at its peak, Chambers set up studios in major American cities to cater to a new generation of picture collectors who wanted to decorate their homes and businesses with art.

Thomas Chambers (1808-1869), Rockaway Beach, New York, with the Wreck of the Ship “Bristol”, ca. 1837-1840. Oil on canvas, 21¾ x 30/ in. Morton and Marie Bradley Memorial Collection. Eskenazi Musuem of Art, Indiana University, 98.44.