Single
date: label: date made
content: 1848
name: label: maker
content: Baillie, James S.
notes: label: Description
content: These happy family scenes were meant to contrast with the restless, discontented bachelor prints. Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater world. Romantic scenes picture devoted husbands with their contented, dutiful wives. In these prints, young women educated in reading, music, needlework, the arts, the language of flowers, basic math and science are subjugated to their family’s needs.
label: Description
content: These prints became popular as lithography was introduced to 19th Century Americans. As a new art form, it was affordable for the masses and provided a means to share visual information by crossing the barriers of race, class and language. Sentimental prints encouraged the artistic endeavors of schoolgirls and promoted the ambitions of amateur artists, while serving as both moral instruction and home or business decoration. They are a pictorial record of our romanticized past.
label: Description
content: This hand colored print is of a young man lounging in an ornate chair with his feet elevated up on footstool in front of a fire place. He is wearing an embroidered fitted coat, ascot, plaid pants and is holding a cigar in his left hand, and a sheet of paper in his right. There is an ornate clock above the decorative coal burning fireplace, a tall bookcase just behind him and there is a stringed musical instrument (guitar?) hanging on the side of the bookshelf. There is fringed drapery just behind his chair, a table with a fringed table cloth, and a fringed rug on top of a patterned carpet. There is sporting equipment on the wall including a rifle, boxing gloves, fencing rapiers, powder horns, saddle bag, and a sword. Prints depicting a bachelor in his quarters and titled <I>Single </I> were common during this period and were often part of a series the included <I>Married</I>.
label: Description
content: This print was produced by James S Baillie, was active in New York from 1838 to 1855. James Baillie started as a framer in 1838, and then became an artist and lithographer in 1843 or 1844. He discovered how to color lithographs while working as an independent contractor for Currier & Ives in the mid 1840’s. A prolific lithographer and colorist for Currier & Ives; his prints were extremely popular with a wide distribution. J. Baillie spent his later years concentrating on painting instead of lithography.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Chronology: 1840-1849
label: Subject
content: Courtship, love
label: Subject
content: Furnishings
label: Subject
content: Communication, letter writing
label: Subject
content: Heating
label: Subject
content: Clocks
label: Subject
content: Boxing
label: Subject
content: Music
label: Subject
content: Fencing
label: depicted
content: Smoking
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: Clothing & Accessories
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Peters, Harry T.. America on Stone
label: Related Publication
content: Garvan, Anthony N. B. and Peter C. Welsh. Victorian American
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.2271
label: catalog number
content: 60.2271
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: hand-colored (image production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 11 1/2 in x 8 1/2 in; 29.21 cm x 21.59 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 in x 10 in; 35.56 cm x 25.4 cm