War News From Mexico

Description

Oil on canvas painting of "War News From Mexico", c. 1870, by an unknown artist, after Richard Caton Woodville, Sr. (1825-1855). This genre-scene depicts a variety of everyday Americans, including immigrants, men, women, children, and African Americans, and their reactions to the man reading from the newspaper on the steps of a hotel. The Mexican-American War (1846-1848) concluded in February 1848. Woodville, a Baltimore, Maryland, native, completed his work in 1848 and it was first exhibited and mass-produced in 1849. A popular work of that era, this painting is a later copy of the original. Woodville only produced about twenty paintings during his short career. He passed away from a morphine overdose at the age of 30.