This innovative introduction examines the profession of the nineteenth-century American artist and audience reception of their work. Works of art by familiar names such as Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer are discussed in detail within the larger arena of visual culture, as are key works by recently discovered artists such as Harriet Hosmer. The thematic approach focuses on portraiture, landscape painting, the American West, and commemorative art, then goes on to examine the ways in which painters responded to major social and economic changes resulting from the rapid transformation from an agriculturally-based former colony to an industrialized imperial power with an evolving democracy.