1. “A Pretty Big Pot of Money”:
The Formation of American Taste
and the Commodification of Art in
Frank Norris’s The Pit

2. Frank Norris, Artist
Source: Teague, David. “Frank Norris and the Visual Arts.” Frank Norris Studies 19 (1994):
4-8. Print.

3. The Jadwins’ Gallery
“here and there about
the room were glass
cabinets full of
bibelots, ivory
statuettes, old snuff
boxes, fans of the
sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.
The walls themselves
were covered with a
multitude of pictures,
oils, water-colours,
with one or two
Painting gallery of the Lockhart residence, c. 1899.
pastels” (175)

4. William-Adolphe Bouguereau
“‘I don’t know much
about ‘em myself, but
Laura can tell you. We
bought most of ‘em
while we were abroad,
year before last. Laura
says this is the best.’ He
indicated a large
‘Bouguereau’ that
represented a group of
nymphs bathing in a
woodland pool” (175).
“Nymphs and Satyr.” 1873. Oil on canvas. 102 in. x 71 in.

5. Edouard Détaille
“It was one of the inevitable
studies of a cuirassier; in this
case a trumpeter, one arm
high in the air, the hand
clutching the trumpet, the
horse, foam-flecked, at a
furious gallop. In the rear,
through clouds of dust, the
rest of the squadron was
indicated by a few points of
colour” (176).
“Charge of the 4th Hussars at the Battle of Friedland.” 1891. Oil on canvas. 148 in x 175
in.

6. Edouard Détaille
“queer way these artists
work…Look at it close
up and it’s just a lot of
little daubs, but you get
off a distance…and you
see now. Hey—see how
the thing bunches up.
Pretty neat, isn’t it?”
(176).
“Trumpeter of the French Cuirassiers Going to Battle.”

7. William-Adolphe Bouguereau
“it demands less of you than
some others. It see what you
mean. It pleases you
because it satisfies you so
easily. You can grasp it
without any effort” (218).
“but…I thought that
Bouguereau was considered
the greatest—one of the
greatest—his wonderful
flesh-tints, the drawing, and
colouring—” (218).
“Nymphs and Satyr.” 1873. Oil on canvas. 102 in. x 71 in.

8. William-Adolphe Bouguereau
“The Birth of Venus.” “Amor and Psyche, “The Return of
1879. Oil on canvas. children.” 1890. Oil on Spring.” 1886. Oil on
118 in. x 85.5 in. canvas. 47 in. x 28 in. canvas. 79 in. x 46
in.

9. The Hudson River School
Sanford Robinson Gifford, “Lake Twilight.” 1861. Oil on canvas. 16 in. x 28 in.
“Don’t you know that the artist saw something more than trees and a pool and
afterglow? He had that feeling of night coming on, as he sat there before his
sketching easel on the edge of that little pool. He heard the frogs beginning to
pipe, I’m sure, and the touch of the night mist was on his hands. And he was
very lonely and even a little sad. In those deep shadows under the trees he put
something of himself, the gloom and the sadness that he felt at the
moment….Oh, yes, I prefer it to the nymphs” (219).

10. The Hudson River School
Albert Bierstadt, “Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Frederic Edwin Church, “Twilight in the Wilderness.”
California.”
Albert Bierstadt, “Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California.” Frederic Edwin Church, “Cross in the Wilderness.”