Created by People Who Were Created by Him
The beautiful Thomas Moran painting and the other 62 paintings that James M. Cowan gave to the city of Nashville are the works of 57 American artists. The paintings date from 1765 to 1923. While in the gallery, I took photos of several that I like and wanted to share with you. Again, please pardon the fact that they are all selfies.
I chose one painting by Winslow Homer, an artist I particularly enjoy. Homer began as lithographic printer and illustrator for newspapers. He created many illustrations of the Civil War for Harper’s Weekly. After the war, he became a popular painter.
Rab and the Girls by Winslow Homer
My passion for the history of native nations prompted my choice of Indian in Cornfield. Walter Ufer, who was born in Louisville, Kentucky, created this and other scenes in the lives of the Pueblo people of New Mexico and Arizona because of his concern for their plight.
Indian in Cornfield by Walter Ufer
My next choice was also prompted by concern for an oppressed people. Artist Hovsep Pushman was born in the Eastern European country of Armenia, which declared Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD. Pushman won a scholarship to study at the Imperial School of Fine Arts in Constantinople when he was 11 years old. When he was 17, he and his family fled Armenia during a period of political unrest. They eventually settled in Chicago. Pushman included childhood memories of Armenia in his paintings.
The Rose of Shiraz by Hovsep Pushman
Other paintings in the Cowan collection include the following two winter scenes.
Valley in Winter by Edward Willis Redfield
Birches and Pines by George Gardner Symons
The last painting I would like you to see is Girl in a Doorway, a painting that Frederick Carl Frieseke, born in Owosso, Michigan, painted of his daughter, Frances, who often modeled for her father.
Girl in a Doorway by Frederick Carl Frieseke
Each of these paintings displays God’s creation and each was created by people who could create because they were created in the image of the One Who made them.
It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it.
I stretched out the heavens with My hands
And I ordained all their host.
Isaiah 45:12