Through a case study of the paintings and writings of William Dunlap, a well-known figure in early Republican art discourse in the United States, this essay argues for a re-evaluation of art-historical thinking at the turn of the nineteenth century. I assert that Dunlap, both as painter and writer, develops an important explanatory model for the local art production of his time. Following from his strongly contextual notion of artistic production, he defines the artwork primarily as a ‘historical document’. On the basis of Dunlap's original, relativist conception of art, the essay proposes a reassessment of the relevance of his paintings as well as a new perspective on one of the key texts of art historiography from the early United States. By closely analysing Dunlap's hitherto neglected self-portraits, this essay makes a case for the epistemic role that painting played in the development of art-historical narratives around 1800.

中文翻译：

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绘画历史性：威廉·邓拉普对时间和地点环境的参与

本文通过对美国早期共和党艺术话语中的知名人物威廉·邓拉普的绘画和著作的案例研究，主张重新评估十九世纪之交的艺术史思想。我断言，无论是作为画家还是作家，邓拉普都为他那个时代的当地艺术创作发展了一个重要的解释模型。根据他强烈的艺术生产语境概念，他将艺术品主要定义为“历史文献”。在邓拉普原始的、相对主义的艺术概念的基础上，本文提出了对他绘画的相关性的重新评估，以及对美国早期艺术史学的关键文本之一的新视角。通过仔细分析邓拉普迄今为止被忽视的自画像，