Boy in a Landscape
ca. 1840
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William Boswell in memory of H. Curley Boswell
Accession Number
1973.152.1
Tags
About this artwork
A confident pose marks this young sitter as a fearless boy who is comfortable in the out-of-doors. In mid-nineteenth-century America, society expected different things from boys and girls. Childhood was seen as an important stage in life when girls were encouraged to learn lessons of self-sacrifice and service, while boys were urged to be daring and aggressive. Contemporary books and images portrayed the American boy as fun-loving and independent. After the Civil War, the image of healthy, happy...
About the Artist
Unidentified ( ) · –