Pat Lyon At The Forge Essay -- John Neagle Artist Painter

Pat Lyon at The ForgeJohn Neagle painted the portrait Pat Lyon at the Forge between 1826 and 1827. Just 50 long time after the beginning of the American Revolution, this painting shows how much America had evolved. Neagles portrait is a powerful celebration of productive labor (p 281) and the, entrepreneurial and commercial energies that transformed the earth (p 8). It conveys the notion of republican equality (p 241) that Wood discusses and how was important it was to the leaders of the Revolution.While portraits had earlier been an exclusive luxury of the aristocracy (p 354), Neagles portrait is a break from that tradition. The painting depicts a blacksmith working in his cast with a young boy, possibly an apprentice, looking on behind him. Pay Lyon looks nothing like an aristocrat. He is a laborer, hard at work with his shirt unbuttoned and sleeves rolled up. In traditional European society, gentlemen didn?t work, only common people did. ?The liberality for which gentleme n were known connoted freedom ? freedom from material extremity?and freedom from having ...