June 12, 2026–January 24, 2027
Entrance at Shoenberg Gallery 236
Picturing Independence marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This foundational document separated the 13 American colonies from the British Empire and joined them into a new nation under shared democratic principles. The exhibition brings together artworks from the Saint Louis Art Museum’s collection to explore how artists have engaged with ideas of independence, from then to now.
The selected artworks are organized around topics of revolution, democracy, and symbols of the United States. Works made during the years of the American Revolution (1775–83) demonstrate how artists on both sides of the Atlantic responded to this act of rebellion and how their works influenced political opinion. Artworks created after the Revolutionary period speak to the aspirations and contradictions at the heart of the United States. Some artists invoked national symbols or the legacy of the American Revolution to connect to the nation’s founding events and principles. Others pictured acts of civic engagement to highlight the ongoing struggle to achieve those ideals. Together, these works demonstrate that the meanings of American independence are not static but are reinvented and questioned by each generation. Picturing Independence invites us to consider how art reflects the multitude of perspectives and voices that shape the American experience.
Picturing Independence is organized by the Saint Louis Art Museum, and is curated by Amy Torbert, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Associate Curator of American Art.
The exhibition is sponsored with generous support from Edward Jones.
Additional support provided by Missouri Humanities.
Shoenberg Gallery 236E
Paul Revere,
American, 1734–1818
after Henry Pelham,
American, 1749–1806
The Boston Massacre, or The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street, Boston on March 5, 1770 by a party of the 29th Regiment, 1770
engraving with hand coloring
On March 5, 1770, a violent confrontation took place in Boston. British soldiers killed five civilians, including Crispus Attucks, a dockworker of African and Wampanoag descent. Paul Revere engraved a depiction of this event, now recognized as a key incident leading to the Revolutionary War. A very successful piece of anti-British propaganda, The Bloody Massacre casts the Americans as defenseless victims through both its image and text. Often copied and widely distributed, Revere’s print provided a spark that helped ignite a revolutionary uproar.
Museum Purchase 201:1942
Benjamin West,
British (born colonial North America), 1738–1820
Daniel Interpreting to Belshazzar the Writing on the Wall,1775
oil on canvas
American-born Benjamin West embedded political meanings within this grand history painting. West served as the official historical painter to Britain’s King George III (reigned 1760–1820). West painted this work in 1775, as the British Empire teetered on the brink of civil war. The painting depicts the prophet Daniel, at center, interpreting a divine message to the Babylonian king Belshazzar. When West showed the painting in spring 1776 at London’s most prominent annual exhibition, he hoped that Daniel’s warning to a prideful king would encourage viewers to act diplomatically rather than punitively toward Americans.
Funds given by Mr. and Mrs. John Peters MacCarthy and the Edwin and Betty Greenfield Grossman Endowment; Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John Alden Sears, by exchange 485:2018
after Jean Antoine Houdon,
French, 1741–1828
Benjamin Franklin,
designed 1778
plaster
From 1776 to 1785, Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) served as minister to France, representing the newly independent United States. To secure much-needed assistance from the French, Franklin framed the Revolution as a fight for shared values of liberty and independence. Jean-Antoine Houdon, a leading portrait sculptor in Paris, suggested Franklin’s personality through his facial expression, which evokes the statesman’s lively intellect, his benevolent warmth, and even a sparkle of sly wit. Houdon first sculpted Franklin in clay and then made many copies in plaster. This bust was likely first owned by a German prince who refused to send troops to fight for the British in North America.
Museum Purchase 32:1935
Revolution
The American Revolution was an act of rebellion. Though few Americans initially desired a full separation from the British Crown, incidents in the early 1770s ignited a civil war that lasted from 1775 to 1783. This conflict also fascinated, inspired, and concerned Europeans. By 1781, France, Spain, and the Netherlands had joined the newly formed United States of America in their fight against the British.
The events and people of the Revolution inspired artists on both sides of the Atlantic. Benjamin West’s painting and Jean-Antoine Houdon’s sculpture reflect the European interest in American independence. Other artists invoked the memory of the American Revolution. In the mid-19th century, illustrator Felix Octavius Carr Darley imagined a 1775 skirmish between Massachusetts farmers and British soldiers. As the nation approached the Civil War (1861–65), artworks such as Darley’s print sought to inspire unity by recalling the fight for independence.
Rembrandt Peale,
American, 1778–1860
George Washington, c.1845
oil on canvas
Rembrandt Peale portrays George Washington (1732–1799) in military dress, gazing resolutely into the distance. Beginning in 1824, Peale completed 79 versions of this portrait over a period of 40 years. This image served as a powerful reminder of the nation’s origins.
As commander of the Continental Army during the American Revolution and first president of the United States, Washington fought for, in his words, “the sacred fire of liberty.” He also enslaved more than 300 Black men, women, and children. His legacy demonstrates a fundamental contradiction at the heart of the nation’s founding—one that continues to shape struggles for racial equity today.
Bequest of Edith J. and C. C. Johnson Spink 30:2014
Paul Revere,
American, 1734–1818
Tankard, 1783–90
silver
Long before Paul Revere took his famous midnight ride to warn colonists of approaching British troops, he was well-known as a skilled silversmith and engraver. Brigadier General Timothy Danielson (1733–1791) of Brimfield, Massachusetts, commissioned this tankard from Revere following the war. Its inscription reads “lovely in Life and in Death not divided”—a memorial to Danielson’s wife, Beulah, and young daughters Sarah and Martha, who died in a smallpox epidemic in 1777 while he was away serving his country.
Private Collection 2011.68
Shadrech Herrick,
American, 1756–1832
Powder Horn, 1777
bovine horn and wood
Shadrech Herrick carved his name, trees, hearts, and a fish onto his powder horn, which held the gunpowder needed to fire a musket. Herrick was a farmer in southwestern New Hampshire who fought in the Battle of Bennington in August 1777. In this pivotal victory for the American forces, patriot militia defeated British and Hessian troops—German soldiers hired by the British—seeking supplies in southwestern Vermont.
Gift of Miss Alta B. Jackson 294:1955
Alexander Hay Ritchie,
American (born Scotland), 1822–1895
after Felix Octavius Carr Darley,
American, 1822–1888
First Blow for Liberty, 1858
stipple engraving
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Kodner 204:1980
Joseph Ives Pease,
American, 1809–1883
after Richard Caton Woodville,
American, 1825–1855
Old ’76 and Young ’48, 1853
etching and engraving
A young soldier, home from the Mexican-American War (1846–48), gestures toward a portrait of a Revolutionary War officer. The portrait’s subject sits by the fire, appearing skeptical as his grandson attempts to connect his recent wartime service with Revolutionary history. The artist Richard Caton Woodville intended all aspects of this scene to be interpreted symbolically, as the United States entered a period of turmoil and division in the 1850s. The African American figures who listen at the door are reminders of the debates over the expansion of slavery, which intensified following the acquisition of new territory in the Mexican-American War.
Gift of Perry T. Rathbone 201:1951
Shoenberg Gallery 236
Bethany Collins,
American, born 1984
America: A Hymnal, 2017
ink on laser-cut leaves of paper, bound in cloth-wrapped binding with ribbon bookmark
This artist’s book contains 100 different versions of the popular American anthem “My Country ’Tis of Thee.” Between the 18th and 20th centuries, supporters of national causes—from the expansion of voting rights to the abolition of slavery and many more— wrote new lyrics to the familiar tune to voice their beliefs. Bethany Collins collected and printed these texts and then burned away the unifying musical notes, leaving only the differing words. Rooted in the idea that there is no single American experience, America: A Hymnal invites reflection on what Collins calls “a familiar chaos of dissenting versions of what it means to be . . . American bound together.”
Gift of Buzz Spector and Njara Stout in honor of Elizabeth Wyckoff 326:2021
Democracy: The Spirit of Independence
“What does independence mean to me?”
In 1975, twelve American artists created prints in response to this question. Commissioned by the Lorillard Tobacco Company, the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio: Spirit of Independence presents different interpretations of independence, from the historical to the highly personal and from the theoretical to the symbolic. Prints by artists Jacob Lawrence, Marisol, Audrey Flack, Fritz Scholder, and Robert Indiana are included in this gallery as an invitation to reflect on the varied meanings of independence, then and now.
Jacob Lawrence,
American, 1917–2000
The 1920’s . . . The Migrants Arrive and Cast their Ballots, from the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio: Spirit of Independence, 1974
screenprint
Voters stand in line at a busy polling location in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. A man in a black suit signs the voter registry as another man behind him enters a booth with a voting machine.
Though African American men had won the right to vote in 1870, this fundamental right was often suppressed. Lawrence wrote of this print: “During the post World War I period, millions of black people left southern communities in the United States and migrated to northern cities. . . . Among the many advantages the migrants found in the north was the freedom to vote. In my print, migrants are represented exercising that freedom.”
Gift of Lorillard, Inc. 52:1976.5
Marisol,
American (born France), 1930–2016
Women’s Equality, from the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio: Spirit of Independence, 1975
color lithograph
In response to the question “What does independence mean to me?” the artist Marisol portrayed Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, leaders in the fights to grant women the right to vote and to abolish slavery. Marisol wrote that she depicted their faces as “strong, determined, with very intense eyes.”
Stanton’s and Mott’s efforts culminated in the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920, which granted women the fundamental right to vote. However, discriminatory practices created barriers to this constitutional right, many of which still persist today. It was not until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 that many women of color began to achieve full electoral equality.
Gift of Lorillard, Inc. 52:1976.8
The Flag
The American flag is more than a national emblem. It is a living, evolving symbol that reflects the nation’s highest aspirations and greatest challenges. The flag of the United States was first recognized by Congress on June 14, 1777. Since then, the meanings and uses of the flag as a symbol have expanded through its depictions by artists and individuals. For many, the image of the American flag is a means to express aspects of their identity. The artworks in this section explore how representations of the flag are used to celebrate, protest, and question what it means to be American, and for whom. These reinterpretations by artists do not reject the flag’s meaning—rather, they expand it, reminding us that patriotism can include dissent.
Neil Armstrong,
American, 1930–2012
Buzz Aldrin and the U.S. Flag on the Moon, 1969
chromogenic print
Gift of Ronald and Mary Jo Anderson 132:2015.2
from left to right:
American
Untitled (Woman and Flag), c.1940s
gelatin silver print
Gift of John R. and Teenuh M. Foster 383:2018
Untitled (Woman in Sailor Uniform in Front of American Flag), 1940s
gelatin silver print
Gift of Peter J. Cohen in honor of Laura T. Cohen 88:2018
possibly Tsistsistas / Suhtai (Cheyenne) artist
Vest, c.1880–1900
tanned hide with glass beads
Rows of red, white, and blue beads form US flags on the back of this vest. Flags became particularly widespread motifs in Plains art in the late 19th century, when the US sought to ban Indigenous religious observances, including the Sun Dance. State-sanctioned Fourth of July celebrations occurred during Sun Dance season, providing Native peoples opportunities to gather communally and maintain some aspects of this worship. Here, crossed poles form a four-direction symbol and evoke Plains cosmologies.
The flag holds a wide range of associations within Native nations. For some individuals, the flag may symbolize oppression; for others, it embodies patriotism, especially for Native American soldiers, who have fought for the US military in every war since 1776.
Museum Purchase 15:1976
Audrey Flack,
American, 1931–2024
Fourth of July Still Life, from the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio: Spirit of Independence, 1975
A bald eagle, a US flag, a trumpet, a crepe-paper streamer, the Liberty Bell, firecrackers, statuettes of a Revolutionary War soldier and Ulysses S. Grant, a print of George Washington, and a tea container make up Audrey Flack’s Fourth of July Still Life. Flack explained that she “tried to create an absolutely American still life.” She layered symbol upon symbol upon symbol, perhaps to comment on the commercialization of Independence Day and the consumerism of 1976, which became known to many as the “BUYcentennial SELLabration.”
Gift of Lorillard, Inc. 52:1976.11
Helen LaFrance,
American, 1919–2020
Marching Band, 1994–99
oil on canvas
Flags wave in a breeze along the route of an Independence Day parade led by a marching band. African American artist Helen LaFrance used memories of her hometown in rural Kentucky to create vibrant and intimate paintings that give us a glimpse of her personal experiences and surroundings. To communicate animated feelings of remembered places, she used flat blocks of strong color and abstracted patterns, like the red, white, and blue balloons that become dots in the sky.
Funds given by Lotsie and Rick Holton 204:2019
from left to right:
Garry Winogrand,
American, 1928–1984
New York City, 1970, published 1978
gelatin silver print
Gift of Lewis and Ellen Siegel 78:2019.5
Moneta Sleet Jr.,
American, 1926–1996
Selma March with United States and United Nations Flags, 1965, printed c.1970
gelatin silver print
Gift of the Johnson Publishing Company 412:1991
The US flag has often been used as a symbol by groups on opposing sides of protests. Thousands of American flags flew in May 1970, when construction workers, longshoremen, and office workers took to the streets in support of the Vietnam War and against the antiwar student demonstrations. Garry Winogrand took this photograph in the days following the Hard Hat Riot, a violent clash between protestors for and against the war.
Photojournalist Moneta Sleet Jr. pictured marchers walking with linked arms from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in the rain. They carry the flags of the United States and the United Nations, aligning their fight for civil rights with the founding ideals of their country.
Fritz Scholder,
Payómkawichum and American, 1937–2005
Bicentennial Indian, from the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio: Spirit of Independence, 1975
color lithograph
In response to the question “What does independence mean to me?” Fritz Scholder depicted a Native man wrapped in the US flag, wearing a hide shirt, face paint, and shell pendants in his hair. He holds an eagle feather upright, an enduring symbol of Indigenous presence, strength, and survival. Scholder said he based this image on 19th-century photographs of Native Americans wearing, as he wrote, “surplus American flags which they discovered in reservation commissaries.” As an artist with an ambivalent relationship to his Indigenous heritage working in the wake of the anti-colonialist American Indian Movement, Scholder offers an ironic reminder that the US flag does not represent independence for all, or even all Americans.
Gift of Lorillard, Inc. 52:1976.4
made by friends of Elizabeth Morrison
designs attributed to Mary Hergenroder Simon,
American (born Germany), 1808–1877, and unknown designers
Album Quilt, 1848
cotton
At the center of this quilt, an eagle grips an American flag in its talons. It is accompanied by an inscription, now faded, that reads, “Presented to E. Morrison by Ladies of Baltimore, Md. Flag of our Union,” followed by signatures of the eight friends who made this quilt. Elizabeth Morrison was a dressmaker in Baltimore, where this style of quilt flourished between 1846 and 1852. Groups of women stitched so-called album quilts to commemorate special events or honor a prominent community member.
Gift of Mrs. Stratford Lee Morton 1:1973
Thomas Fletcher,
American, 1787–1866
Sidney Gardiner,
American, 1785–1827
Tureen, 1817
silver
Four fierce eagles glare out from beneath the handles of this large tureen, or serving dish. Created by Philadelphia silversmiths Fletcher and Gardiner, this vessel was presented to Commodore John Rodgers by the citizens of Baltimore. It commemorates his defense of Fort McHenry against the British bombardment in 1814.
Funds given by the Decorative Arts Society and the Eliza McMillan Trust 15:1974a,b
Chinese
Coffee Cup, c.1790–1820
glazed porcelain with enamel and gilding
Museum Purchase 170:1929
American Pottery Company,
Peoria, Illinois, active 1859–1863
Pitcher, c.1860–63
glazed earthenware
Margarita M. and Roland E. Jester Endowment Fund for the Decorative Arts and the Anne L. Lehmann Charitable Trust; and Museum Purchase, by exchange 112:2011
American
Coverlet, c.1835–50
wool and cotton
The word Liberty appears 16 times on this coverlet, or bedcover. It is joined by other national symbols, including the eagle, United States shield, and George Washington, alongside peacocks, thistles, and stylized flowers. This woven celebration of patriotic icons must have resonated with the coverlet’s owners, who moved to Belleville, Illinois, in the 1830s from the East Coast. It remained in the same family until 1955, when a descendant gave it to the Museum.
Gift of Mrs. Irvin Leopold 291:1955
right:
American
Girandole Mirror, c.1800
gilded wood, glass, mirrored glass, and brass
Funds given by the Decorative Arts Society 10:1968
Robert Indiana,
American, 1928–2018
Liberty ’76, from the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio: Spirit of Independence, 1975
screenprint
A self-proclaimed “American painter of signs,” Robert Indiana encircled a star with two phrases. As he explained, he intended them to read, “They chose to be free; free we choose to be.” Here, Indiana uses language itself as a symbol. Referencing both the Vietnam War (1954–75) and the Watergate scandal (1972–74), he described the early 1970s as “the time of greatest peril to our individual liberties suffered over the course of those two centuries [since 1776].” Through the power of the printed word, Indiana hoped to reaffirm the principles of freedom and individuality.
Gift of Lorillard, Inc. 52:1976.9
Muriel Nezhnie Helfman,
American, 1934–2002
Flaggedy Ann, 1970
wool, tapestry weave, with some plaiting, brass wire form
Flaggedy Ann is an exuberant celebration of both flag design and Raggedy Ann dolls, by St. Louis–based artist Muriel Nezhnie Helfman. A founder of Craft Alliance—a local arts center—and member of the Weavers’ Guild of St. Louis, Nezhnie (as she signed her works) experimented with creating free-form tapestries. Flaggedy Ann comes from a series of large, bold female figures whose arms and torso are suspended on curved armatures.
Gift of Thomas Alexander 189:1978
from left to right:
Joseph Pennell,
American, 1857–1926
That Liberty Shall Not Perish from the Earth, 1918
color lithograph
James Henry Daugherty,
American, 1889–1974
Follow the Flag, 1917
color lithograph
Transferred from the St. Louis Public Library 277:1974; 274:1974
National Symbols
Artists in the first decades of the United States of America developed symbols that became national icons. This section explores how artists have modified and adapted these images to communicate their perspectives on the founding principles of freedom and liberty.
In 1776, the Continental Congress authorized the design of a national seal. Its main feature—the bald eagle— quickly became the most pervasive symbol of the new nation. The coverlet, mirror, and ceramic and silver vessels displayed here show the widespread use of this symbol in homes throughout the 19th century.
Artists also expressed the concept of liberty through artworks featuring both images and words. A pair of posters from World War I (1914–18) suggests the enormous power that these symbols have wielded in shaping both individual lives and national histories.
George Caleb Bingham,
American, 1811–1879
The County Election, 1851–52
oil on canvas
A large group of citizens gathers to place their votes in an election. As they wait, men debate noisily, point fingers, pound fists, and drink heartily. One of the newest citizens, an Irish immigrant in a red shirt, takes an oath that he has not voted elsewhere. Two boys, representing the next generation of voters, play mumblety peg, a knife game that progressively increases in risk. A politician himself, George Caleb Bingham fervently believed that the “will of the people,” as the banner reads in this painting, and not political parties should decide elections—and that the democratic process must be embraced even though uninformed votes could prevail.
Museum Purchase 124:1944
Claude Regnier,
French, active 1840–1866
after George Caleb Bingham,
American, 1811–1879
Canvassing for a Vote, 1853
color lithograph
Gift of Dr. Oscar F. Potter 83:1913
Democracy: Civic Participation
“The Will of the People the Supreme Law.” Thus declares a blue banner in George Caleb Bingham’s painting The County Election, announcing the American system of democracy. The American Revolution established a new nation and form of government based on the principle that power resides with the people.
This section presents works that depict the act of voting and assert that multiple perspectives are integral to the democratic process. The fundamental right to vote is a centerpiece of American democracy and an essential means of civic participation. At the nation’s founding, however, more than half of its population was excluded from voting. Over the past 250 years, political leaders, grassroots organizations, and individual citizens have continued the work to extend equal voting rights and to ensure access for all citizens.