Christmas-Time, The Blodgett Family

Eastman Johnson American

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 763

This conversation piece—a group portrait with narrative elements—was the first commissioned work of a type that Johnson would often paint. It shows William Tilden Blodgett (1823–1875), a supporter of the Union cause and a founding trustee of the Metropolitan Museum, with his family in the Renaissance Revival parlor of their house at 27 West 25th Street. Depicted during the Civil War, at a time of urban upheaval, the serene interior decorated for Christmas, embodies "the best sentiment of home," as a critic observed in 1865. Only the toy of a caricatured black male dancer held by the young boy hints at pressing issues of racial strife and emancipation.

Christmas-Time, The Blodgett Family, Eastman Johnson (American, Lovell, Maine 1824–1906 New York), Oil on canvas, American

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Christmas-Time, The Blodgett Family, Eastman Johnson (American, Lovell, Maine 1824–1906 New York), Oil on canvas, American
Christmas-Time, The Blodgett Family, Eastman Johnson (American, Lovell, Maine 1824–1906 New York), Oil on canvas, American
Christmas-Time, The Blodgett Family, Eastman Johnson (American, Lovell, Maine 1824–1906 New York), Oil on canvas, American
Christmas-Time, The Blodgett Family, Eastman Johnson (American, Lovell, Maine 1824–1906 New York), Oil on canvas, American

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