Miller’s portraits of children share some common attributes, such as large, almond-shaped eyes, individually painted eyelashes, meticulously rendered clothing details, and full, pink cheeks. His flesh tones feature shades of blue, which he probably used to prime his canvases. In this painting, a young boy looks up from his picture book to meet the viewer’s gaze; his puppy appears to have just jumped up, perhaps excited by the viewer entering the scene to meet them.

Isaac and William were descendants of John Hand, who emigrated from England to Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1635. Both sons were born in Lynn, and this double portrait celebrates the joys of childhood in early America. While many early American portraits of children included toys, Prior depicted the Hand brothers and their kite and drum with particular delight. The landscape view, with its brushy, highlighted trees and pink sunset sky, is characteristic of Prior’s portrait commissions.

This painting is closely related to Albert Bierstadt’s A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie (Brooklyn Museum), which was inspired by drawings that artist made on a western expedition in 1863. The original painting traveled the country, and its popularity grew through the distribution of prints made after the original. The unknown painter of this work, who is identified only by the signature on the back of the canvas, almost certainly looked at a print copy for inspiration.

Miller’s portraits of children share some common attributes, such as large, almond-shaped eyes, individually painted eyelashes, meticulously rendered clothing details, and full, pink cheeks. His flesh tones feature shades of blue, which he probably used to prime his canvases. In this painting, a young girl pauses in the middle of picking pink roses from a potted bush. Her minimally modeled forearms, stylized flowers, and carefully depicted cotton pantalettes are hallmarks of Miller’s artistic style.

This portrait was modeled after Gilbert Stuart’s 1796 portrait of George Washington, which Prior was permitted to copy in 1850. He then made numerous reverse-glass paintings based on the copy. This portrait provides contemporary museum visitors with an example of American reverse-glass painting (which was also popular on decorative arts objects, such as mirrors and clocks) and of the commercial ingenuity of American portrait painters working in the mid-19th century.

Mourning imagery was popular in 19th-century American visual culture. The iconography of such pictures was rooted in classical, Arcadian influences drawn from a variety of sources, combining European literature, philosophy, and the fine arts with American cultural ideals. Often featuring a grieving female figure within an idealized landscape, the traditional mourning picture format is believed to have been popularized after the death of George Washington, America’s first national hero.

During the era of western expansion, the frontier came to exist in the American imagination as a land of unlimited promise and potential, an awe-inspiring paradise as depicted here by Moran. The natural beauty and unique geological features of sites like the Grand Canyon helped artists perpetuate the mythology of the West—Moran painted the Grand Canyon throughout his career, and some of these works were commissioned by railway companies to promote tourism.

This landscape was painted during the artist’s years in Montclair, New Jersey, when he created many landscapes that only existed in his imagination. Filled with lush, green trees and grasses, the scene draws inspiration from the Barbizon sous bois tradition associated with the forest of Fontainebleau, in which the viewer is situated deep within—and beneath—a light-dappled woodland or forest canopy.

The critic Sadakichi Hartmann lyrically described the work of Martin: “he makes use of landscapes to express his own bitterness and weariness; he contemplated nature with a dreaming sadness, and created groves and mountain recesses in which he could hide his melancholy broodings. But he was too genuine a poet of the brush to remain solely subjective.” Martin’s atmospheric landscapes, like this moody coastal New England view, convey his emotional sense of place.

In Rhapsody, the central cluster of swaying trees is a riotous blaze of purple and plum tones, silhouetted against a glowing orange sky and behind a foreground foliage screen of green. Despite the pulsating energies generated by the combination of vibrant hues, the painting exudes a kind of calm, as color and form balance one another in perfect harmony.