Christmas-Time, The Blodgett Family

Eastman Johnson American

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 762

This portrait shows the family of William Tilden Blodgett (1823–1875), a leading collector, founding trustee of The Met, and active abolitionist, in the Renaissance Revival parlor of their house on West Twenty-Fifth Street in New York City. Painted during the political and moral upheaval of the Civil War, 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, handled by the young boy and the center of the family’s attention, evokes the pressing racial issues of the time.

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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