William Dunlap

William Dunlap ( born February 19, 1766 Perth Amboy, New Jersey, † September 28, 1839 in New York City, New York) was an American painter, art historian and writer.

Life and work

Dunlap began as a painter, but turned to writing soon. As a playwright, he became one of the most prolific playwrights of the young America. With André, he wrote one of the first major tragedies of the United States; He wrote a total of 60 pieces. From 1798 he was a friend of August Kotzebue and translated his plays into English. In addition to Kotzebue's works, he staged plays other German writers on American stages, including August Wilhelm Iffland, Heinrich Zschokke and Friedrich Schiller. Dunlap also published the first comprehensive history of theater in the United States.

Through its multiple relations to contemporary American artists, he presented A History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States ( first edition 1834) together the first collection of American artists' biographies and was therefore called the ' American Vasari '. The work is a comprehensive exhibition of American painting from its beginnings to Thomas Cole and marked by Dunlap national and republican beliefs. He drew in the long formative for American art history ideal image of the American artist who freely created by the feudal constraints of European society, a free art in a position to.

Works (selection)

Dramas

  • André ( 1798)
  • The Stranger (1798 )
  • False Shame ( 1799)
  • The Italian father (1799 )
  • The Virgin of the Sun ( 1800)

Literature and Art Criticism

  • A history of the rise and progress of the arts of design in the United States ( 1834)
822444
de