Object Details
Artist
William Josiah Brickey, born Potosi, MO 1826-died New Orleans, LA 1853
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.
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase
Date
1852
Object number
1974.112
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Type
Painting
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
29 1/8 x 36 in. (74.0 x 91.5 cm)
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
Topic
Figure group
Animal\dog
Occupation\law\judge
Cityscape\Missouri
State of being\other\poverty
Occupation\law\lawyer
Architecture Interior\civic\courthouse
Link to Original Record
Record ID
saam_1974.112