A world-class collection of American art, stunning architecture, and 120 acres of Ozark forest with five miles of trails. Admission to the museum is always free.
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Museum & Buildings
Trails and Grounds open daily sunrise to sunset.
May 25 – September 9, 2019
Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment is a new exhibition that examines American artists’ impact on shaping environmental understanding and stewardship.
Featuring 100 artworks from 70 eminent US collections, Nature’s Nation traces 300 years of evolving ideas about the natural world and our place within it. From colonial beliefs about the divine in nature, to artists’ advocacy for national parks, to the emergence of environmental activism, the paintings, photographs, and installations by Thomas Moran, Frank Lloyd Wright, Dorothea Lange, and many more explore our relationship with the environment.
Similar to the mission of Crystal Bridges, Nature’s Nation illuminates the connection between art and nature.
Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment has been organized by the Princeton University Art Museum. Leadership support has been provided by Shelly and Tony Malkin; Annette Merle-Smith; the Henry Luce Foundation; and the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition traveled to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA and concluded at Crystal Bridges.
This project is supported in part by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Collection Connection: Charles Willson Peale is one of the most influential figures in American art—he had a large artistic family who collectively helped shape the image of the nation. See:…
At the beginning of this year, Crystal Bridges decided to increase its effort to reduce waste museum-wide. In order to make this initiative possible, the museum partnered with Coca-Cola, a…
How the Other Half Lives (New York) Cities are necessary to hold people and provide jobs, but cities can also tell a story about the environment through stories…
“The Mountains south east of our Camp & on the road to the lake looking toward the Yellowstone Country, glorious, & I do not expect to see any finer general…
Harriet and Warren Stephens, Stephens Inc., The Harrison and Rhonda French Family, Jim and Susan von Gremp, Galen, Debi, and Alice Havner, Highland, Adam D. Stolpen, James and Emily Bost
Frank Lloyd Wright, Tree of Life Window, 1904. Glass with brass caming in modern oak frame. Princeton University Art Museum. Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund. © 2013 Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Scottsdale, AZ/Aritists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Frederic Edwin Church, American, 1826–1900, Cayambe, 1858. Oil on canvas. New-York Historical Society, The Robert L. Stuart Collection, the gift of his widow Mrs. Mary Stuart. Digital image created by Oppenheimer Editions.
James Hamilton, American, born Ireland, 1819–1878, Burning Oil Well at Night, near Rouseville, Pennsylvania, ca. 1861. Oil on paperboard. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC / Art Resource, NY.
Albert Bierstadt, American, 1830–1902, Mount Adams, Washington, 1875. Oil on canvas. Princeton University Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Jacob N. Beam.
Albert Bierstadt, American, 1830–1902, Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite, ca. 1871–73. Oil on canvas. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, Purchased with funds from the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest) and various donors, by exchange.
Morris Louis, American, 1912–1962, Intrigue, 1954. Acrylic resin (Magna) on canvas. Princeton University Art Museum, Gift of Sylvia and Joseph Slifka in honor of Frederick R. and Jan Perry Mayer. © 1954, Morris Louis.
Alan Michelson, Mohawk, born 1953, Home in the Wilderness, 2012. Handmade paper, archival ink, and archival board. Collection of the Artist. © Alan Michelson.
Thomas Cole, American, 1801–1848, Home in the Woods, 1847. Oil on canvas. Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, gift of Barbara B. Millhouse. Reynolda House is an Affiliate of Wake Forest University.. Courtesy of Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Affiliated with Wake Forest University.
Newell Convers Wyeth, American, 1882–1945, Roping Horses in the Corral, 1904. Oil on canvas. Private Collection.
Charles Willson Peale, American, 1741–1827, George Washington at the Battle of Princeton, 1783–84. Oil on canvas. Princeton University, commissioned by the Trustees.
Valerie Hegarty, American, born 1967, Fallen Bierstadt, 2007. Foamcore, paint, paper, glue, gel medium, canvas, wire, wood. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Campari, USA 2008. 9a-b. © Valerie Hegarty. Photo: Brooklyn Museum
Charles Willson Peale, American, 1741–1827, The Artist in His Museum, 1822. Oil on canvas. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Gift of Mrs. Sarah Harrison (The Joseph Harrison, Jr. Collection), 1878.1.2.
Robert Walter Weir, American, 1803–1889, The Greenwich Boat Club, 1833. Oil on canvas. Princeton University Art Museum, Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund and the Kathleen Compton Sherrerd Fund for Acquisitions in American Art; frame gift of Eli Wilner& Company . Photo Bruce M. White.
Robert Smithson, American, 1938–1973, Bingham Copper Mining Pit, Utah Reclamation Project, 1973. Wax pencil and tape on plastic overlay on photograph. Seibert Family Collection. Art © Holt/Smithson Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
Alexandre Hogue, American, 1898 – 1994, Crucified Land, 1939. Oil on canvas. Gift of Thomas Gilcrease Foundation, 1955 Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa Oklahoma. © Estate of Alexandre Hogue.
Kent Monkman, Cree, born 1965, The Fourth World, 2012. Acrylic paint on canvas. Lent by Denver Art Museum. Collection of Vicki and Kent Logan. © Kent Monkman. Photography courtesy of Denver Art Museum.
John Gast, American, born in Germany, 1842–1896, American Progress, 1872. Oil on canvas. Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles.
Thomas Cole, American, 1801–1848, Home in the Woods, 1847. Oil on canvas. Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, gift of Barbara B. Millhouse. Reynolda House is an Affiliate of Wake Forest University. Courtesy of Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Affiliated with Wake Forest University.