Women in the 19C United States of America: Women Reading by Seymour Joseph Guy (1824-1910)

Sunday, October 3, 2021

Women Reading by Seymour Joseph Guy (1824-1910)

Seymour Joseph Guy (1824-1910) Summer Issue

Although born in England, Seymour Joseph Guy became one of America’s most famous genre painters, celebrated for his delicate genre paintings of women & children in domestic environments. Several of his paintings revolved around reading.

Seymour Joseph Guy (1824-1910) An Interesting Book

In 1852 he married Anna Maria Barber (c. 1832–1907), daughter of William Barber, an engraver. The couple had 9 children who could serve as models for their father.

Seymour Joseph Guy (1824-1910) Preparing for the next day, Seymour 1895

Guy immigrated to America in 1854, and immediately entered the artists’ circles present in New York, mainly forging his path as a portraitist and later, a genre painter.

Seymour Joseph Guy (1824-1910) Dear Polly

In 1861, he was listed as a founding member of the Brooklyn Art Association and named an associate of the National Academy the next year.

Seymour Joseph Guy (1824-1910) Young Girl Reading 1877

Seymour Joseph Guy (1824-1910) The Reading Lesson.

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.”