Women and American art -- early 1800s

• “Woman” as ideal of “nature,” “naturalness”=

  • Body, abundance, sexually available; pure and seductive
  • Emotional & unintellectual; need of rescuing
  • Domestic “angel of the house,” guardian of virtue

• “Mother” the ideal of domestic harmony

  • Harmony of household = harmony of nation

• Ambivalent treatment of women and African Americans within domestic scenes

• Upper-class women important as commercial consumers of goods often produced by lower-class & immigrant women in factories & mills.

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