Thomas Waterman Wood
Born in Montpelier, Vermont, Thomas Waterman Wood painted idealized scenes of everyday life. He first established himself as a portrait painter, traveling widely to paint commissions. After a year of study in Europe, he began painting genre scenes and diverse images of American people—works that secured his reputation. Wood influenced other American artists as president of the National Academy of Design from 1891 to 1899. He also established the Wood Gallery of Art in his native Montpelier.
What about this figure captivates your attention?
Wood frequently painted genre pictures—scenes of everyday American life. Here, we meet Moses Small, a freed African American man who was well known for selling the Baltimore Patriot newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland. Moses emerges from the painting’s dark background, tipping his hat toward the viewer, offering us a newspaper from his stack. Wood transformed our role in the picture through his composition: approaching this canvas as observers, we are invited to become Moses’s next customer.
Gift of Henry K.S. Williams
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