Interpretation as Introspection: Transforming Narratives of American Art at the Allen Memorial Art Museum

Lined up as if across a stage, a fashionably dressed family poses in front of an expansive plot of land (fig. 1). A luxurious Greek Revival home occupies the right half of the property. Young trees and plants are scattered throughout a carefully manicured lawn on the left. A white fence enclosing the land protects this meticulously ordered universe from the surrounding forest. Empty trellises along the house await new growth—a sign of optimism in the land and the family’s future in their home. The proud patriarch of this rosy-cheeked family is Bentley Simons Runyan. Born in Knox County, Ohio, Runyan moved to nearby Mansfield in 1847, where he became a hardware merchant and civic leader.1 He commissioned this painting from the English-born artist Frederick E. Cohen (around 1816– 1858), who moved to Ohio in 1854 after a varied career in Detroit, where his output ranged from designing stage sets and decorative panels for Great Lakes steamships to painting portraits and historical subjects.2