Artist:

William Josiah Brickey, born Potosi, MO 1826-died New Orleans, LA 1853  Search this

Medium:

oil on canvas

Dimensions:

29 1/8 x 36 in. (74.0 x 91.5 cm)

Type:

Painting

Date:

1852

Luce Center Label:

The participants in this courtroom scene focus their attention on a fair-skinned man dressed in rags, possibly one of the thousands of Irish immigrants who had escaped the potato famine and made their way to Missouri. These farmers settled in urban areas where they hired out as day laborers, struggling to get by with little income and no property of their own. (Parrish, gen. ed., A History of Missouri, vol. II, 1972) The men who sit in judgment are clearly more prosperous, and this painting evokes the mixed welcome that generations of European immigrants experienced in nineteenth-century America.

Topic:

Figure group  Search this

Animal\dog  Search this

Occupation\law\judge  Search this

Cityscape\Missouri  Search this

State of being\other\poverty  Search this

Occupation\law\lawyer  Search this

Architecture Interior\civic\courthouse  Search this

Credit Line:

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase

Object number:

1974.112

Restrictions & Rights:

CC0

See more items in:

Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection

Department:

Painting and Sculpture

On View:

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 3rd Floor, 14B

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 3rd Floor

Data Source:

Smithsonian American Art Museum

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7fbc00155-6481-48d4-afb9-32fc179779e0

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:saam_1974.112