Women in the 19C United States of America: Richard Caton Woodville 1825-1855 - A Man's World

Friday, November 13, 2020

Richard Caton Woodville 1825-1855 - A Man's World - Baltimore

Richard Caton Woodville (American painter, 1825-1855) Politics in an Oysterhouse 1848

Richard Caton Woodville (1825-1855) was supported by his prosperous Baltimore family, who had hoped he would become a physician, in his endeavor to become an artist by trade.

Richard Caton Woodville (American painter, 1825-1855) Scene in a Bar Room 1845

His young artistic talent was stirred by his access to the art collection of early Baltimore art collector Robert Gilmore, whose collection included Dutch & Flemish genre paintings depicting domestic scenes of people in interiors.

Richard Caton Woodville (American painter, 1825-1855) Old 76 and Young 48, 1849

Some of Woodville's most delightful works are his genre scenes of Baltimore's citizens. Like many genre painters working for centuries before him, Woodville's paintings depict anecdotal details as well as unresolved conflict. Woodville was a storyteller.

Richard Caton Woodville (American painter, 1825-1855) The Card Players

Woodville recorded his early life in Baltimore in the form of drawings, including those depicting his University of Maryland medical school faculty during 1842-3, when he studied medicine.

Richard Caton Woodville (American painter, 1825-1855) News About the War in Mexico 1848

He finally decided to turn from medical studies to full-time painting; and in 1845, he sailed to study art in Düsseldorf. He spent time in Europe, but his extant paintings reflect a relish for the people & interiors of American life.

Richard Caton Woodville (American painter, 1825-1855) Waiting for the Stage

While Woodville produced most of his work after leaving Baltimore in 1845 to travel widely in Germany, France & England, he continued to paint Maryland subject matter. He also sailed back to Baltimore for at least 2 visits after his 1845 departure.

Richard Caton Woodville (American painter, 1825-1855) The Sailor's Wedding 1852

Woodville died at age 30 from an overdose morphine

Richard Caton Woodville (American painter, 1825-1855) Self Portrait 1853

About this blog

In colonial America, men were considered superior to woman in all ways. In a strict patriarchal hierarchy, men controlled not only wealth & political power but also how their children were raised, religious questions, & all matters of right & wrong.

In the early part of the 19Cy, however, many Americans experienced a revolution in gender. The doctrine of “separate spheres” maintained that woman’s sphere was the world of privacy, family, & morality while man’s sphere was the public world -– economic striving, political maneuvering, & social competition. But women were interested in equality.

In 1848, New York passed the Married Woman’s Property Act. Now a woman wasn’t automatically liable for her husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf. She became for economic purposes, an individual. By 1900, every state has passed legislation modeled after this, granting married women some control over their property and earnings.

In 1870 after the Civi War, the 15th Amendment was ratified, saying, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” African-Americans could vote, but women could not.

But it was not until 1920, that the 19th Amendment was ratified granting women the right to vote. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”