Paintings of 18th-Century American Families

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1729 John Smibert (American colonial era artist, 1688-1751). The Bermuda Group

Family portraits are rare in early 18th century British colonial America, perhaps because they were expensive & usually so large, that they required a sizable public parlor for display. Most 18th-century colonial American houses were not spacious. Family portraits are also much more complicated for the artist, and there were few artists available in colonial America early in the century. But the incidence of family portraits grew, as the number of painters & spaces in homes also grew.

1741 Robert Feke (American colonial era artist, 1707-1751). Family of Isaac Royall.

Some gentlemen had family portraits painted as a sign of wealth & as a factor in gaining respect & power in the new world. The painting announced that they were important, entitled to be the natural leader in the new society. Other family paintings commemorated a specific event. Most were not painted to be tucked away for private family contemplation, but to act as a public icon or an emblematic memory for an audience larger than the immediate family. The composition of family paintings was changing throughout the 18th-century as well.

1747 John Greenwood (American colonial era artist, 1727-1792). The Greenwood-Lee Family

The concept of family was evolving as emerging Enlightenment ideas began to impact everyday domestic life & family values in colonial America. Slowly throughout the century, the strict partriarchal family concept was beginning to change. English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) implied that women should have greater authority in the family & the home. In portraits, artists began to display the woman on nearly the same level as the husband.

1750 John Wollaston (American colonial era artist, 1710-1775). Family Group

Artists began to feel that they could portray married couples as congenial companions. Painters began to portray men participating more in the rearing of their children, they were no longer just expected to be distant strict disciplinarians. Americans were beginning to believe that children needed to be loved & to play. The individual was also becoming more important in 18th-century America. Artists often used props to signify something about the talents, skills, & identities of individuals within these families. In one way or another, each of the following portraits reflects changing patriarchial values, gender relations, attitudes towards women & children, and the growing democratization of American society. But we still remember that women did not receive the right to vote in the United States until 1920.

1755 Joseph Blackburn (American colonial era artist, fl 1753-1763). Isaac Winslow and His Family

NB For this posting I have excluded portraits of children only. Smibert's Bermuda Group and Copley's family portrait were executed immediately before or after the artist entered or exited the American colonial experience. They are so good, I just couldn't resist stretching the boundries to include them.

1763-65 Henry Benbridge (American colonial era artist, 1743-1812). Gordon Family (Including his stepfather & mother Mary Clark Benbridge Gordon)

1770 Henry Benbridge (American colonial era artist, 1743-1812). The Tannatt Family

1771 Charles Willson Peale (American colonial era artist, 1741-1827). Edward Lloyd Family with wife Elizabeth Tayloe and daughter Anne.

1771 William Williams (American colonial era artist, 1727-1791). The Wiley Family.

1771-73 Charles Willson Peale (American colonial era artist, 1741-1827). The Peale Family.

1772 William Williams (American colonial era artist, 1727-1791). The William Denning Family

1775 Henry Benbridge (American colonial era artist, 1743-1812). The Archibald Bulloch Family.

1776 John Singleton Copley (American-born artist, 1738-1815). The Copley Family.

1779 Edward Savage (American artist, 1761-1817). The Savage Family.

1779 Henry Benbridge (American artist, 1743-1812). The Enoch Edwards Family.

1785 Robert Edge Pine (American artist, 1720-30-1788). Alexander Contee Hanson, Sr. and Family.

1787 Henry Benbridge (American artist, 1743-1812). The Hartley Family.

1788 Johannes Eckstein (American artist, 1736-1817) The Samels Family

1789 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827). Robert Goldsborough & Family.

1789 Edward Savage (American artist, 1761-1817). The George Washington Family.

1790 John Brewster Jr. (American painter, 1766-1854) Morgan Family Portrait

1793 Joseph Wright (American artist, 1756-1793). The Wright Family (Joseph & Sarah with children Harriet, Sarah, & Joseph).

1795 James Peale (American artist, 1749-1831). The Artist & His Family.

c 1795 John Brewster Jr. (American painter, 1766-1854) Deacon Eliphaz Thayer and His Wife, Deliverance

1795 Unknown Artist. The Cheney Family.

1790s Josè Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza (Mexican-born Louisiana artist, 1750–1802) Family of Don Antonio Mendez (1750-1829)

1796 Jonathan Budington (American artist, 1766-1854). Portrait of George Eliot and Family.

1796 Ralph Earl (American artist, 1751-1801) The Nickerson Family

1798 John Ritto Penniman (American painter, 1782–1841) Family Group

1798 Ralph Earl (American artist, 1751-1801). Mrs. Noah Smith and Her Children.

1790s Josè Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza (Mexican-born Louisiana artist, 1750–1802) Family of Dr. Joseph Montegut

1800 Joshua Johnson (American artist, c.1763–1832). Family Group.
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From Wax Figure sculptor to portrait artist & 1st US Mint engraver Joseph Wright 1756-1793)

Joseph Wright (1756-1793), was born in Bordentown, New Jersey. He probably received his first art training from his mother, wax sculptor Patience Lovell Wright (1725–86).

Joseph Wright (1756-1793) Benjamin Franklin 1782 from observation + the 1778 pastel by Joseph Siffred Duplessis (1725–1802)

After his father's death in 1769, Joseph, Jr. was probably taken by guardians, Manuel Eyre & his wife, who lived in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. In that year, Joseph began studies at The College, Academy & Charitable School of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania.

Joseph Wright (1756-1793) George Washington, 1783-1785 In August 1783, Congress authorized funding for an equestrian statue of George Washington in "Roman dress…his head encircled with a laurel wreath." They commissioned American painter Joseph Wright for a bust of the victorious Commander in Chief. Wright executed this cast bas-relief portrait as an offshoot of that project. Bust-length, profile portraits were extremely popular in the late eighteenth century. Based on ancient Greek and Roman examples, they appealed to neoclassical tastes. They also embodied the individualism and rationalism of the Enlightenment era by demanding close, objective observation for an accurate depiction.

His mother opened a waxworks in New York City. In 1772, she moved to London to open a studio & waxworks there. Six years later, in 1775, Joseph, Jr. joined his mother in England; & became the first American-born student to matriculate in the Royal Academy of Arts at Somerset House in London, where he studied for 6 years, until 1781. He won a silver medal for "the best model of an Academy figure" in December 1778. In 1780, he caused a scandal at the Royal Academy by exhibiting a portrait of his mother sculpting a wax head of King Charles II, while busts of King George III & Queen Charlotte looked on.

Joseph Wright (American artist, 1756-1793) Hannah Bloomfield Giles 1784

In 1781, Joseph, & his mother, traveled to Paris; & while there, he painted several portraits of Benjamin Franklin. After 7 years in Europe, Wright returned to America in 1782, where he became the first of just 2 artists to make a plaster mold of George Washington.

Joseph Wright (1756-1793) George Washington Drypoint 1790. Wright’s delicate & intimate drypoint profile of Washington was much copied by contemporary artists in a variety of media, magazines, prints, & medals. There is a popular, though not necessarily truthful, story that Wright secretly sketched the president, while he sat in his pew in Saint Paul’s Chapel in New York. Washington posed for Wright in 1783, for a painting & a sculpture. It is conceivable, that the artist drew upon that experience for this little print.

In 1783, George Washington described the experience as Wright executed his plaster mask, "He oiled my features over, and, placing me flat upon my back upon a cot, proceeded to daub my face with the plaster. While in this ludicrous attitude, Mrs. Washington entered the room, and seeing my face thus overspread with plaster, involuntarily exclaimed. Her cry excited in me a disposition to smile, which gave my mouth a slight twist or compression of the lips that is now observable in the busts which Wright afterwards made."

Joseph Wright (1756-1793) G. Washington, engraved by James Manly after Joseph Wright, ca. 1790.

Thomas Jefferson judged a portrait of George Washington by Joseph Wright very highly. "I have no hesitation in pronouncing Wright's drawing to be a better likeness of the General than Peale's," he wrote in 1795. Wright painted a portrait of Washington for Jefferson in 1784, & planned to have a drawing, which was made at the same time, engraved in London by his mother Parience Wright.

Joseph Wright (1756-1793) Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg (1750-1801) First Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

In January 1786, the engraving still had not been made. Jefferson wrote: "before the painter would agree to draw it for me, he made me promise not to permit any copy of it to be taken till his mother in London should have time to have an engraving from one which he drew out at the same time, & also to dispose of the engravings. Twenty months have now elapsed, & I can neither learn that they have made any engraving from the picture, nor get an answer from the painter." Wright's mother died in London in 1786.

Joseph Wright (1756-1793) John Jay (1745–1829) was a patriot statesman & the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1789–95).

Wright made a small drypoint etching of Washington in New York in 1790, & Jefferson acquired two of them. He purchased the first on 10 June, noting in his Memorandum Book, "pd for print of the President by Wright 8/." & the second on June 23, "pd. for another engraving of General Washington by Wright 8/." On June 27, he sent one to his daughter Martha: "I now inclose you an engraving of the President done by Wright who drew the picture of him which I have at Paris."

Joseph Wright (1756-1793) Coin designed with Liberty Cap

Wright stayed in New York City in 1785, before moving back to Philadelphia. On December 5, 1789, Wright married Sarah Vandervoordt in Philadelphia.

Joseph Wright (1756-1793) worked at the first U. S. Mint taken in 1854 by Frederick DeBourg

Meanwhile, President, George Washington & Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, diligently sought after talented European engravers to design the first United States coins. However, they failed in this endeavor. They finally decided that Joseph Wright, would become the "unofficial" Mint Engraver in 1792.

Joseph Wright (1756-1793) Liberty Cap

He began working there at the nascent U. S. Mint in the second half of 1792. In August, 1793, Joseph was designated as the Mint's "First Draughtsman & Diesinker." Wright was responsible for the design of the Liberty Cap half & large cents. These designs were based upon the obverse of the Libertas Americana medal on which Wright is believed to have been the designer. Large Cent varieties of 1793 are his creations.

The first U.S. Mint (c.1910) built in 1792. The last-standing (main) building was destroyed in 1911

It was a a time of turmoil, confusion, & delay, during the building of the first US Mint. This mint was attempting to issue a new coinage that would take a while to be accepted. Most mint records were not being recorded. It was a time when creating & issuing US coinage was an urgent matter, just to gain a start, with an independent coinage for circulation in the newly independent nation the United States of America.

Joseph Wright (1756-1793) Family portrait of Artist's Family. Joseph Wright & Sarah Vandervoordt-Wright, in an unfinished 1793 painting, with their children; Sarah (on floor), Joseph & baby Harriet. Joseph, Jr. & Sarah are believe to be twins. Wright's painting was left unfinished, when both he & Sarah died from yellow fever during the 1793 Philadelphia epidemic. It has been postulated that Wright used Sarah's likeness when creating the Liberty Cap design.

It was a short lived post at the United States Mint, as Wright contracted Yellow Fever, less than a year into his new post, in 1793. The Yellow Fever epidemic struck Philadelphia hard that year & prompted, all who could, to leave the city. It shut-down mint operations for a time. Wright, contracted yellow fever & died on September 13, 1793. His wife Sarah also died from the fever.

Hats, Hats, Hats - Headwear in the Early American Republic 1780-1789

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1780 Winthrop Chandler (American artist, 1747-1790) Mrs Samuel Chandler1783 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) The Artist's Mother, Mrs. Charles Peale1784 Joseph Wright (American artist, 1756-1793) Hannah Bloomfield Giles1785 Matthew Pratt (American artist, 1734-1805) Charity Platt Bush (1761-88)

1785 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827). Mrs. James Crawford1785 Ralph Earl (American artist, 1751-1801) Mrs. John Johnston (Martha Spear)1785 Robert Edge Pine (American artist, 1730-1788) Mrs. Alexander Contee Hanson, Sr.1785-90 Beardsley Limner (American artist, fl 1785-1805) Mrs Hezekiah Beardsley1786-93 Beardsley Limner (American artist, fl 1785-1805) Harmony Child (Mrs Oliver Wright) 1765-2861

1786 Robert Edge Pine (American artist, 1730-1788) Dorcas Spear (Mrs. William Patterson)1787 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Mary Chew (Mrs Thomas Elliott)1787 Christian Gullager (American artist, 1759-1826) Sarah Greenleaf (Mrs Oflin Boardman)1787 Ralph Earl (American artist, 1751-1801) Mrs Alexander Hamilton1787 Ralph Earl (American artist, 1751-1801) Mrs. James Duane1788 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Mrs Robert Gilmour1788 Unknown Artist Mrs Jacob Edwards

1788 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827). Peggy Sanderson (Mrs. Christopher Hughes)1788 Unknown Artist Ruth Stanley (Mrs John Mix)1788 Ralph Earl (American artist, 1751-1801) Martha Tennent Rogers (Mrs. David Rogers)1789 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Mrs Robert Goldsborough1789 Christian Gullager (American artist, 1759-1826) Martha Saunders (Mrs Nicholas Salisbury)1789 Christian Gullager (American artist, 1759-1826) Elizabeth Sewall Mrs Samuel Salisbury1789 Christian Gullager (American artist, 1759-1826) Rebecca Salisbury Mrs Daniel Waldo1789 Ralph Earl (American artist, 1751-1801) Clarissa Seymour Mrs Truman Marsh1789 Ralph Earl (American artist, 1751-1801) Esther Boardman1789 Winthrop Chandler (American artist, 1747-1790) Mary Gleason Chandler (1752-89).