Artists in the British colonies and early United States looked to Europe for inspiration.
1607–1820 C.E.
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Gilbert Stuart, The Skater
Depicting his subject in motion was a departure from the norm, making this painting the talk of the town.
John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark
A former orphan, Watson became a wealthy and influential man—after surviving a near-fatal shark attack.
Jean-Antoine Houdon, George Washington
Lack of an American sculptural tradition compelled Jefferson to look to France for this portrait of Washington.
Gerardus Duyckinck I (attributed), Six portraits of the Levy-Franks family, c. 1735
A Jewish family in early New York
Benjamin West, Penn’s Treaty with the Indians
A founding myth for Pennsylvania and for the United States
Thomas Birch, Perry’s Victory on Lake Erie
"We have met the enemy and they are ours." The battle that turned the War of 1812
John Singleton Copley, Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Mifflin (Sarah Morris)
On the eve of the American Revolution, a glimpse of politics in portraiture.
An African Muslim among the founding fathers, Charles Willson Peale’s Yarrow Mamout
How a portrait of an African Muslim came to hang side-by-side with the founding fathers in one of America's earliest museums.
The triangle trade and the colonial table, sugar, tea, and slavery
Global trade in a cup of tea: Colonial America, sugar and slavery.
