Documenting United States History

196 ChApTEr 8 | the MarKet reVoLution | period Four 180 0 –1848

Document 8.4 JOSEPH H. DAvIS, Family Portraits

1832–1837

Joseph H. Davis (1811–1865) painted portraits for middle-class families to display in their

homes. He traveled throughout New England and made a modest living as a painter,

creating watercolor portraits of families and married couples that featured their favorite

household items and articles of clothing.

image copyright © the Metropolitan Museum of

art.

image source:

art

resource,

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Y.

the

azariah Caverly Family, 1836, attributed to Joseph

h

.

Davis,

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0061.1961. Gift of stephen C. Clark, Fenimore

a

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Museum, Cooperstown,

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ew York.

prACTICINg historical Thinking

Identify: What details do Davis’s paintings share?

Analyze: In what ways do these images portray the roles that were played by men

and women in the middle-class households of this era?

Evaluate: What objects in these portraits define those roles? In what ways are these

objects a product of the economic changes represented in Docs. 8.1–8.3?

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