Permanent Collection - The James M. Cowan Collection
Greek Theater - To be announced
Volunteer Opportunities / Docent Training
Educational Tours and Programming
Department at the Parthenon focuses on state and national curriculum standards. The Parthenon can be used to explore art, architecture, science and even mathematical problems. All K-12 groups are guided by a Parthenon staff member or docent. Instructors are asked to make a reservation at least seven days before visiting the Parthenon with a school group.
Please remember, we must limit tour groups in the Parthenon to 60 students, split into two groups of 30. Schools wishing to bring larger groups must schedule multiple days.
There are many tools throughout the Parthenon site than can be utilized in the classroom. Visit the Parthenon website for lesson plans and other resources.
2010 - 2011 Symposia Lecture Schedule
Nothing scheduled at this time
** All lectures are
sponsored by The Conservancy for the Parthenon and Centennial Park and
the Archaeological
Institute
of America.
Unless otherwise noted, lectures
begin at 7:00 p.m. Call 862-8431 for reservations. **
· October 31, 2009 - February 20, 2010 - The Fiery Gizzard Series - Paintings by Susan McGrew
· November 14, 2009 - February 6, 2010 - What Lies Beneath - Paintings by John Kingerlee
· February 20 - June 12, 2010 - Hidden Gems - A History of Collecting at the Parthenon
· March 6 - June 26, 2010 - Cartagena Memories - Paintings by Jorge A. Yances
· July 10 - October 30, 2010 - Spatial Schedmes - Paintings by Lisa Rivas
· July 17- November 27, 2010 - Women In Mythology - Paintings by Rachael McCampbell
Pleasure in Collecting: American Art at the Parthenon
The James M. Cowan Collection
View
the collection...
View the Cowan Brochure...
In 1897, James M. Cowan from Aurora, Illinois, visited the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. He visited as the director of a group of girls who made up the Armour Drill Corps of Chicago. Cowan already had ties to Tennessee. At the age of thirteen, he had moved with his family to Tullahoma, Tennessee, and remained there until he was in his twenties when he moved to Cincinnati. He subsequently made his wealth in insurance, but his true passion was collecting art. As he neared the end of his life, Cowan had some seven hundred pieces in his collection. Aware that Nashville’s Parthenon was being reconstructed as a permanent structure, he decided to donate anonymously a portion of his collection to be housed there. Between 1927 and 1929, the works were shipped to Nashville, to be moved into the Parthenon upon completion of the reconstruction.
In fact, he purchased many pieces specifically with this destination in mind, eventually giving sixty-three pieces to Nashville. These works, all oils on canvas, dating 1765-1923, are housed permanently in the Parthenon and bare the name of its generous donor – the Cowan Collection.
A distinguishing characteristic of this collection is that all of the work was done by American artists. Fifty-seven artists are represented in the collection, most of which dates late 19th and early 20th centuries. Almost all of the artists represented were also members of the National Academy of Design, a prestigious artists’ league of the time. Within the collection, many connections occur among the artists as among their paintings.
A common theme found in most of the paintings is Impressionism. Impressionism was a school of painting introduced by the French in the first Impressionism Exhibition held in Paris in 1874. It was an attempt using pure color to imitate light. Many of the artists in this collection studied in Paris during their careers. Within the collection can be found many secondary artist alliances including the Hudson River School, the Luminists, the Symbolists, Barbizon School influences, and Nabis influences.
The primary concentration in the collection is fifty-one landscapes, including many plein-air paintings (done on location) and four seascapes which emphasize an undulating ocean and coast; a difficult and unusual subject matter. There are eight portraits in the collection, all of which the subject of the portrait is anonymous.
Generally, there is one work by each artist in the collection, so in looking you can learn something of the man who formed this collection by his choices. We see a man who was taken with the landscape in its more unrefined form, and had a diverse and unusual interest in figure paintings. This is a fine collection of American art and we are indeed fortunate to have it here in Nashville.