The Yankee Pedlar

Thomas Waterman Wood’s Yankee Pedlar presents a seeming slice of nineteenth-century country life: a moment of negotiation between a persuasive New England peddler, who offers the temptations of manufactured and luxury goods, and a cautious, thrifty farm family, who can barter products of agricultural life. Through careful use of light, material details, and gesture, Wood ties the figures together while differentiating the family members’ varying reactions to the peddler’s sales pitch, from the cautious reserve of the listening farmer, his face in shadow as he sits amidst the fruits of their labors, to the wife’s longing as she fingers a fancy red dress while glancing speculatively toward her young daughter. The golden-haired little girl, highlighted in her pink dress and white smock, is the nexus of these relationships: enthralled by the wonders the peddler offers, she dangles a china-head doll that suggests her indulgent parents’ capitulation on the occasion of an earlier visit. Her elderly grandmother, seated just inside a doorway in the shadowy background as she strains to overhear the negotiation, represents an earlier generation of the farm family. While The Yankee Pedlar is intended to be “read” as a narrative, it eschews the overt sentimentality or moralizing that characterizes much of the artist’s genre painting; instead, Wood presents his modest tableau of rural life with a detached clarity commensurate with the crisp linearity with which he renders material objects.

By the post-Civil War era, the Yankee peddler was a familiar social type in American popular culture. In literary treatments, he was often an ambiguous figure whose native ingenuity and inventiveness could translate into hard bargaining or sheer swindling. Many visual artists, including Wood, shared the peddler’s experience of itinerant salesmanship, however, and presented him with humorous sympathy. Wood’s antiquated peddler, with his patched and frayed clothing and earnest expression, reflects the evolving status of the peddler as a figure of the past for America’s urbanizing population. In an era of increasingly complex economic relations and competitive commercialism, both the Yankee peddler and the Yankee farmer personified seemingly endangered ideals of thrift, hard work, and plain dealing associated with a simpler time and with vanishing rural life.

As in other genre paintings, Wood realized a convincing authenticity by portraying situations and individuals he knew intimately. A Vermont native, he was familiar from childhood with New England rural life and its commercial transactions. His model for the Yankee peddler was a celebrated tin peddler known as “Snapping Tucker,” from Calais, Vermont, near Wood’s hometown of Montpelier. One of Wood’s most complex and ambitious compositions, The Yankee Pedlar provided a breakthrough for the artist both financially and critically. Reviewers lauded the painting when it was shown at the 1872 Brooklyn Art Association exhibition, from which it had already been purchased for the then-princely sum of eight hundred dollars.

Exhibition, The Century Club, February 3, 1872, no. 26 (as Country Peddler).

Exhibition, Brooklyn Art Association, Brooklyn, New York, March 11–April 6, 1872, no. 301.

Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, New York, 1873, no. 248.

The American Painting Collection of Mrs. Norman B. Woolworth, Coe Kerr Gallery, Inc., New York, New York, November 10–28, 1970. [exh. cat.]

Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 2000.

New Faces, New Places: Recent Additions to the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 14–December 31, 2000.

Héroïque et le quotidien: les artistes américains, 1820–1920 (The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 30, 2001. [exh. cat.]

American Classics: Selections from the Terra Foundation for the Arts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 26–September 1, 2002.

A Place on the Avenue: Terra Museum of American Art Celebrates 15 Years in Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 16, 2002–February 16, 2003.

The People Work: American Perspectives, 1840–1940 (Le Travail à l'oeuvre: les artistes américains 1840–1940), Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, March 15–May 25, 2003; Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, June 8–August 17, 2003. [exh. cat.]

Copley to Cassatt: Masterworks from the Terra Collection, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut and Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, September 5–December 7, 2003.

A Narrative of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 13–October 31, 2004.

Expanded Galleries of American Art with Loans from the Terra Foundation for American Art Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, April 15, 2005–January 2007.

Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, NY and Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, IL (organizers). Venues: NationalArt Museum of China, Beijing, China, February 9–April 5, 2007; Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China, April 30–June 30, 2007; Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China, April 30–June 30, 2007. (Shanghai presentations ran concurrently); The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia, July 23–September 9, 2007; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain, October 15, 2007–April 27, 2008. [exh. cat.]

Galleries of American Art with Loans from the Terra Foundation for American Art Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, June 2008–September 2010.

Taxing VIsions: Financial Episodes in Late Nineteenth-Century American Art, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park, Pennsylvania, and The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California (organizers). Venues: Palmer Museum of Art, University Park, Pennsylvania, September 28–December 19, 2010; The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California, January 29–May 30, 2011. [exh. cat.]

Art Across America, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; National Museum of Korea, Seoul, South Korea; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venues: National Museum of Korea, Seoul, February 4– May 12, 2013; Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, South Korea, June 7–September 1, 2013. [exh. cat.]

America: Painting a Nation, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (organizers). Venue: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, November 9, 2013–February 8, 2014. [exh. cat]

Galleries of American Art with Loans from the Terra Foundation for American Art Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, April 2014–February 2019.

"A Home Artist." The Vermont Watchman 66, no. 26  (April 19, 1871): 1. Text p. 1 (as The Yankee Peddler).

"Exhibition of the Art Association." Brooklyn Eagle (March 11, 1872).

“Fine Arts: The Academy of Design.” The New York Times (April 20, 1873). Text (as The Yankee Peddler).

"Art Gossip." New York Evening Mail (April 30, 1872).

"National Academy of Design." The Evening Post (April 14, 1873). Text (as The Peddler).

"Art Annual Exhibition of National Academy of Design." The Aldine 4, no. 6 (June 1873): 127. Text p. 127.

The Green-Mountain Freeman. Montpelier, VT (June 25, 1873). Text (as The Yankee Peddler).

"American Painters-Thomas W. Wood, N.A." The Art Journal 5, no. 2 (1876): 114–15. Text p. 115; ill. p. 115 (reproduced as a wood engraving).

Art Journal (1878): 155. Ill. p. 155 (reproduced as a wood engraving).

Cooper, W. A., “Artists in Their Studios V: Thomas Waterman Wood, N.A.” Godey’s Magazine 131, no. 781 (July 1895): 3–7. Text p. 6 (as Yankee Pedlar).

Willis, S. Turner. “A Gift to Montpelier.” Godeys Magazine 131, no. 782 (August 1895): 184–191. Text p. 188.

Catalogue of the Pictures in the Art Gallery in Montpelier: The Thomas W. Wood Collection. Montpelier, Vermont: The Capital City Press, 1913. Text pp. 14–15.

Crockett, Walter Hill. Vermont: The Green Mountain State. New York, NY: The Century History Company, Inc., 1923. Text p. 567 (as The Yankee Peddler).

Art for Gardens Together with Furniture, Paintings, Marbles, Staircases and Objets D’Art Chosen from Important Estates and Collections Here and Abroad. New York, NY: American Art Association, Anderson Galleries Inc., 1933. Text (foreword); p. 44, cat. no. 153; ill. p. 44 (black & white, as The Yankee Peddler).

Gerdts, William H. The American Painting Collection of Mrs. Norman B. Woolworth. (exh. cat., Coe Kerr Gallery, Inc.). New York: Coe Kerr Gallery, Inc., 1970. Text p. 45, 47; ill. p. 69, pl. 124 (black & white as The Yankee Peddler).

Williams, Jr., Hermann W. Mirror to the American Past. Greenwich, Connecticut: New York Graphic Society, 1973. Text p. 160; ill. p. 160, fig. 151 (black & white as The Yankee Peddler).

Hills, Patricia. The Painters' America, Rural and Urban Life, 1810–1910. (exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art). New York: Praeger Publishers in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974. Text p. 80; ill. p. 80, no. 98 (as The Yankee Peddler).

Hasker, Leslie A. and J. Kevin Graffagnino. "Thomas Waterman Wood and the Image of Nineteenth-Century America." The Magazine Antiques 118 (November 1980): 1032–42. Text p. 1034; fig. 10, p. 1039 (as The Yankee Peddler).

Gerdts, William H. Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting. Vol. 1. New York: Abbeville Press, 1990. Text pp. 45; ill. p. 45, pl. 1.37 (black & white as The Yankee Peddler).

Witkowski, Terrence H. “Farmers Bargaining: Buying and Selling as a Subject in American Genre Painting, 1835-1868.” Journal of Macromarketing 16, no. 2 (December 1, 1996): 84–101. Text p. 94 (as The Yankee Peddler).

The Yankee Pedlar, Thomas Waterman Wood. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 2000. Ill. (black & white).

Cartwright, Derrick R. The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2001. Text p. 24 (checklist); ill. p. 35 (color as The Yankee Peddlar).

Cartwright, Derrick R. L'Héroïque et le quotidian: les artistes américains, 1820–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2001. Text p. 24 (checklist); ill. p. 35 (color).

Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. The People Work: American Perspectives, 1840–1940. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2003. Text pp. 16, 30 (checklist); ill. p. 16, fig. 1 (black & white).

Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. Le Travail à l'oeuvre: les artistes américains, 1840–1940. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2003. Text pp. 16, 30 (checklist); ill. p. 16, fig. 1 (black & white).

Cassidy, Victor M. “The Feast Part I.” Artnet (June 16, 2005). Accessed February 16, 2017. Text; ill. (color).

Davidson, Susan, ed. Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation. (exh. cat., National Museum of China, Beijing; Shanghai Museum). New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Chicago, IL: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Text p. 143; ill. p. 143, fig. 61 (color).

Davidson, Susan, ed. Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation. (exh. cat., National Museum of China, Beijing; Shanghai Museum). New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Chicago, IL: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Chinese edition. Text p. 143; ill. p. 143, fig. 61 (color).

Art In America: 300 years of Innovation. Hong Kong: Wen Wei Publishing Co. Ltd, 2007. (in Chinese) Ill. p. 47 (color).

Davidson, Susan, ed. Art in the USA: 300 años de innovación. (exh. cat., Guggenheim Museum Bilbao). New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Chicago, IL: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Ill. p. 96 (color).

Tallack, Douglas. “Review: Art as Diplomacy.” Journal of American Studies 42, no. 1 (April 2008): 141-145. Text p. 142.

Mazow, Leo G. and Kevin Murphy. Taxing Visions: Financial Episodes in Late Nineteenth-Century American Art. (exh. cat. Palmer Museum of Art and The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens). University Park, Pennsylvania: Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State Univeristy, 2010. Text pp. 59, 72 (checklist); ill. p. 60, fig. 54 (color).

Art Across America. (exh. cat., National Museum of Korea, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art). Seoul, South Korea: National Museum of Korea, 2013. Text pp. 35, 165; ill. p. 36, fig. 21 (color), p. 164 (color).

America: Painting a Nation. (exh. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the National Museum of Korea, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art). Sydney, Australia: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2013. Text p. 106; ill. p. 107, cat. no. 27 (color).

Frost, Andrew. “America: Painting a Nation, Art Gallery of NSW – review.” The Guardian (November 10, 2013). Accessed February 16, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/11/america-painting-a-nation-art-gallery-of-nsw-review. Text.

Allen, Christopher. “America: Painting a Nation at the Art Gallery of NSW.” The Australian (November 30, 2013). Accessed February 16, 2017.  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/america-painting-a-nation-at-the-art-gallery-of-nsw/news-story/901564ecf3f8809f66e11d830677d6d7. Text; ill. (color).

Bourguignon, Katherine M., and Peter John Brownlee, eds. Conversations with the Collection: A Terra Foundation Collection Handbook. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2018. Text p. 103; ill. p. 103 (color).