Oh say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, how a huge painting covered in writhing nudes and gold leaf could be a symbol of US power? Not a huge leap is it? And here it is, in the National Gallery, Edwin Austin Abbey’s study for The Hours, a huge circular painting which adorns the ceiling of the Pennsylvania state capitol – a bold, blue and gold testament to the US’s glory.
It’s hard to believe – with museums everywhere begging for money from arms dealers and drug barons, and the arts becoming increasingly defunded – that back in turn-of-the-century America, the arts had value. And Abbey reaped the benefits. He was born in the US in 1852 but made his name in the UK. And when the big kahunas from the newly megarich Pennsylvania came knocking, he answered the call of the motherland.
