Genre and Still Life Painting

The Yankee Pedlar, 1872
Object-Thomas Waterman Wood, The Yankee Pedlar
In his portraits and genre paintings, Thomas Waterman Wood combined realism and moralizing narrative to document American life during the mid- and late nineteenth century. The Yankee Pedlar presents a moment of negotiation between a persuasive peddler, who offers manufactured and luxury goods, and a cautious yet eager farm family, accustomed to the barter exchanges more typical of agrarian life. As a Vermont native, Wood was familiar with such transactions in the northeastern United States. His model for The Yankee Peddler was a celebrated tin salesman known as “Snapping Tucker” from Calais, Vermont. Based on a veritable fixture in midcentury rural culture, Wood’s peddler reflects a figure of the past for America’s rising urban population. In an era of evolving, complex economic relations and competitive commercialism, The Yankee Peddler personified ideals of thrift, hard work, and plain dealing associated with a simpler time and a vanishing way of life.
Learn more about this painting on the Terra Foundation website.
The Yankee Pedlar, 1872
Genre and Still Life Painting

Fiddling His Way, c. 1866

The Home of the Red, White, and Blue, c. 1867–68

Fruit Piece: Apples on Tin Cups, 1864

Apple Picking, 1878

The Trap Sprung, 1844

Harvest of Cherries, 1866

Ships Unloading, New York, 1868

Picnic Party in the Woods, 1872

Still Life with Apple Blossoms in a Nautilus Shell, 1870

The Yankee Pedlar, 1872

The Jolly Flatboatmen, 1877–78

One Dollar Bill, 1890

The Whittling Boy, 1873

Old Time Letter Rack, 1894