Mose, Lize & Little Mose Going to California
ca. 1849
Medium
Hand-colored lithograph
Dimensions
sheet: 12 5/8 x 16 11/16 in. (32 x 42.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Edward W. C. Arnold Collection of New York Prints, Maps and Pictures, Bequest of Edward W. C. Arnold, 1954
Accession Number
54.90.1360
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the bustling mid-19th-century world of American popular culture, *Mose, Lize & Little Mose Going to California (ca. 1849) captures the adventurous spirit of the California Gold Rush. This hand lithograph depicts the iconic Bowery B'hoys—Mose, his wife Lize, and their Little Mose—embarking on a westward journey in a horse-drawn carriage. Frank Chanfrau, the who famously portrayed the rough-and-tumble firefighter Mose on New York stages, collaborated with lithographer Henry R. Robinson to immortalize these larger-than-life characters from urban melodramas. The image humorously transplants the...
About the Artist
Frank Chanfrau|Henry R. Robinson (American|American) · 1824 |1800 –1884 |1850
American, New York 1824–1884 Jersey City, New Jersey|American, died 1850