The Art of Colonial America

by Roseanna White

Today I thought I'd do something different (for me) and present a visual post. Below you'll find some paintings done in Colonial America...a few of figures you'll recognize, and a few that simply caught me eye. Like this one.

The above is Portrait of Deborah Hall, painted by William Williams in 1766.

This is a more familiar subject. Paul Revere was painted between 1768 and 1770 by John Singleton Copley. Of course, at this point is history, Revere was known mostly for his silver smithing...and not for any midnight rides.

Planter and his Wife, with a Servant is circa 1780, by Italian painter Agostino Brunias.

Portrait of a Woman by American painter John Feke, circa 1748.

Another by John Singlton Copley, this one done in England in 1778, when Copley had fled America to avoid the tension between his Whig and Tory patrons. This is Mrs. John Montresor.

And finally, I'll give you one of George Washington. There are so many to choose from, but I figured I'd go with one I used in my research of Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland. Painted by John Trumbull, this is his immortalization of Washington resigning his commission once the war was finally, officially over in 1783. In my story, Lark was one of those women up in the balcony. ;-) (In the painting, Martha Washington and other family members are pictured behind him. In reality, they were still in Virginia. Artistic license...)

Legacy: Colonial Images in Art

Ship carving figurehead.
Ship carver's shop, Mystic Seaport, CT

Photography is creative outlet for me, as is my writing. I love taking pictures of the people in my life. I also enjoy taking photographs while on my research trips, such as the images on this page which I took at some historical museums*. The visual aspect helps me to remember many of the things that I learn.

Before the advent of photography other arts had to serve the purpose of visual recording history. Of course there were crafts such as silversmiths, potters, furniture makers, etc. whose created objects have sometimes survived as a tribute to the lives and lively-hoods of their makers. In the 18th century America, the art of portraiture became a popular means of preservation, for those who had the means to afford them.

Ship's figurehead.
Mystic Seaport, CT

Sculptures are also found in centuries past in the founding days of our nation, though not in abundance. Images paying tribute to the legacy of an individual were created in wax and stone. The earliest portrait stone carvings were depicted on grave markers.

Yet, apart from ship's figurehead carvers, statues were the least cultivated among the arts in colonial times. The figureheads were said to identify a ship to the illiterate. Even those who are literate can quickly identify a likeness, and often attribute to that person words spoken to them.

Images are powerful, as are our words. Writing is another means of preserving a legacy through art. You will find many colonial era persons and personas memorialized in the writings of our Colonial American Christian Writers.

What did our colonial forebearers have to say about the value of writing?

Bust of George Washington.
Bates Memorial Museum, Hinkley, Maine

"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb
and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."

― George Washington

Bust of Benjamin Franklin.
Bates Memorial Museum, Hinkley, Maine

"Either write something worth reading or do
something worth writing."

― Benjamin Franklin

Bust of Thomas Jefferson.
Colonial Williamsburg, VA

  

"The most valuable of all talents is that of never

using two words when one will do."

"I cannot live without books."

―Thomas Jefferson

Statue of Abigail Adams
Location unknown  

“My pen is always freer than my tongue.”   

― Abigail Adams

If we had no way to preserve visual images and had to rely solely on crafting legacy through words, what would your writing say about you?


Sculpture in Early America

*All photographs, except of Abigail Adams, taken by Carla Gade.