Who do you interact with when you shop in your neighborhood?
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.
Who do you interact with when you shop in your neighborhood?
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.
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.
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.
What is going on in this young man’s head?
William Rufus Gray was not a prominent person when Stuart painted his portrait. He was just 24, the eldest son of William Gray of Salem, Massachusetts, a multimillionaire senator and president of the Boston branch of the Bank of the United States. The younger Gray’s expression appears guarded, as if he is conscious of being judged against his father’s accomplishments; his parents undoubtedly held high expectations for their son’s future success.
What is going on in this young man’s head?
William Rufus Gray was not a prominent person when Stuart painted his portrait. He was just 24, the eldest son of William Gray of Salem, Massachusetts, a multimillionaire senator and president of the Boston branch of the Bank of the United States. The younger Gray’s expression appears guarded, as if he is conscious of being judged against his father’s accomplishments; his parents undoubtedly held high expectations for their son’s future success.
How would you depict “genius”?
By 1789, when this picture was painted, West was at the height of his career. King George III had given him a series of commissions to decorate Windsor Castle, including a project for the ceiling in the reception room of the Queen’s Lodge, where the royal family was living. A model for the ceiling’s central panel of the ceiling, this painting features a winged male representing Genius descending upon the female personifications of Sculpture, Painting, Architecture, Music, and Astronomy.
How would you depict “genius”?
By 1789, when this picture was painted, West was at the height of his career. King George III had given him a series of commissions to decorate Windsor Castle, including a project for the ceiling in the reception room of the Queen’s Lodge, where the royal family was living. A model for the ceiling’s central panel of the ceiling, this painting features a winged male representing Genius descending upon the female personifications of Sculpture, Painting, Architecture, Music, and Astronomy.
What does a self-portrait convey that a portrait cannot?
Peale painted this self-portrait in 1822 as a gift to his daughter Sophonisba, and it was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts that year. A note in the accompanying catalogue read, “Painted in the 81st year of his age without spectacles.” This image of the elderly artist-scientist conveys Peale’s intelligence, searching powers of observation, and firm sensibility and idealism.
What does a self-portrait convey that a portrait cannot?
Peale painted this self-portrait in 1822 as a gift to his daughter Sophonisba, and it was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts that year. A note in the accompanying catalogue read, “Painted in the 81st year of his age without spectacles.” This image of the elderly artist-scientist conveys Peale’s intelligence, searching powers of observation, and firm sensibility and idealism.