Gallery 23

Wood painted Market Woman, with its unidentified subject, as a companion piece to Moses, The Baltimore News Vendor. It is not certain whether the artist depicted a free woman buying or selling vegetables, or an enslaved woman doing the daily food shopping for a white family. Though free blacks could work as street vendors, they were denied many basic civil rights, including citizenship and the right to vote.

Wood painted Market Woman, with its unidentified subject, as a companion piece to Moses, The Baltimore News Vendor. It is not certain whether the artist depicted a free woman buying or selling vegetables, or an enslaved woman doing the daily food shopping for a white family. Though free blacks could work as street vendors, they were denied many basic civil rights, including citizenship and the right to vote.

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.

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.

Because Bard’s paintings were typically commissioned by ship owners, they avoided depicting the dangers of steamboats, which sometimes burned and sank when their overheated boilers exploded. The Syracuse, whose paddle-wheel box bears imagery of the sun rising behind that city’s modern industrial factories, was owned by the Schuyler Steam Towboat Company, founded in 1825 by Samuel Schuyler, a free African American who bore the name of one of New York’s oldest Dutch colonial families.

Because Bard’s paintings were typically commissioned by ship owners, they avoided depicting the dangers of steamboats, which sometimes burned and sank when their overheated boilers exploded. The Syracuse, whose paddle-wheel box bears imagery of the sun rising behind that city’s modern industrial factories, was owned by the Schuyler Steam Towboat Company, founded in 1825 by Samuel Schuyler, a free African American who bore the name of one of New York’s oldest Dutch colonial families.

This scene takes place in the humble home of a young Civil War veteran who has been disabled by the loss of a leg. A pension claim agent sits at the table, pen in hand, listening to the soldier’s story. His family members sit nearby, quietly completing their respective domestic tasks, as they listen to the young man plead his case. Johnson’s sensitive portrayal of these characters invites the viewer to consider their relationships and their social and economic status.

This scene takes place in the humble home of a young Civil War veteran who has been disabled by the loss of a leg. A pension claim agent sits at the table, pen in hand, listening to the soldier’s story. His family members sit nearby, quietly completing their respective domestic tasks, as they listen to the young man plead his case. Johnson’s sensitive portrayal of these characters invites the viewer to consider their relationships and their social and economic status.

In the nineteenth century, many American painters turned to rural themes as a reaction against increasing industrialization and technological progress. In this portrait of an American farmer at rest, Thomas Waterman Wood offers viewers an idealized image of a model citizen. Hardworking and happy, Wood's figure embodies the nostalgia of the era — leaning on his pitchfork with his jacket slung casually over his shoulder, he appears worlds removed from the rapid mechanization of the time.

In the nineteenth century, many American painters turned to rural themes as a reaction against increasing industrialization and technological progress. In this portrait of an American farmer at rest, Thomas Waterman Wood offers viewers an idealized image of a model citizen. Hardworking and happy, Wood's figure embodies the nostalgia of the era — leaning on his pitchfork with his jacket slung casually over his shoulder, he appears worlds removed from the rapid mechanization of the time.