All Aboard: The Railroad in American Art, 1840–1955

All Aboard: The Railroad in American Art, 1840-1955, explores depictions of trains and train infrastructure in American painting during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From its emergence as a technological marvel in mid-nineteenth century landscape views to its adoption by artists as a symbol of modern life and industry, the railroad was a significant motif in several major art movements.

Featuring paintings from the Hudson River School to postwar abstraction, the exhibition considers the impact of the railroad on American art through significant works by Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hart Benton, John Sloan, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacob Lawrence, George Tooker, Kay Sage, and others. Depictions of rail workers and passengers present trains as spaces for distinct forms of social interaction. Other works illuminate the railroad as an engine of modernity, but also a cause of population displacement, labor struggles, and environmental destruction that changed the fabric of American life, from the urban centers of the East Coast to the Heartland and Pacific Ocean.

All Aboard: The Railroad in American Art, 1840–1955 is organized by Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Joslyn Art Museum, and Shelburne Museum. It is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue.

Pictured: Carl Frederick Gaertner (American, 1898–1952), Swamp Spur, 1944, oil on canvas, 24 × 40 in. (61 × 101.6 cm), The John and Susan Horseman Collection, Courtesy of the Horseman Foundation, © The Estate of Carl Frederick Gaertner courtesy of WOLFS Gallery