The Annonymous Artist

• In seventeenth century New England, artists were usually considered common craftsman on par with a blacksmith or tailor. The Italian Renaissance idea of the genius artist had not yet taken hold in places like Boston or New York. Therefore, it is not surprising that the creator of the most notable American masterpiece of the 1600s, "Mrs. Elizabeth Freake and Baby Mary" is unknown. The artist left the piece unsigned, which was a common practice at the time.
  
  

Cartography

• In 1585, British-born artist and cartographer John White (1545-1606) journeyed to the New World at the behest of the British government. White was charged with the task of documenting the landscapes and depicting the native plants, animals and people. His watercolors and sketches were among the first images captured of the newly discovered continent. Of his most notable works, the watercolor "Map of the East Coast from Florida to Chesapeake Bay" is admired for its remarkably detailed outline of the American coastline.
  
  

Portaiture

• By the mid-1700s, many colonists had accumulated considerable fortunes. The affluent inhabitants of urban areas like Charleston, South Carolina and Boston, Massachusetts considered portraiture a tasteful display of one's elite status.
  
  Connecticut-born artist John Trumbull (1756-1843) captured the likenesses of many notable colonists, included Thomas Jefferson. John Singleton Copley (1738-1815), considered by many to be the colonies' first great painter, composed portraits and detailed miniatures of the well-to-do families of New York and Boston. To his patrons, owning a Copley portrait was the ultimate status symbol.
  
  

Cabinetmaking

• Another craft that grew in popularity as the colonists amassed great wealth was cabinetmaking and the decorative arts. The fine furniture constructed by Rhode Island native John Townsend (1733-1809) became a sought after commodity for wealthy New Englanders who desired to fill their palatial homes. Townsend's pieces were prized for their exquisite craftsmanship and for his signature style--the block and shell. This style is easily recognizable as each piece was sectioned into three partitions, with the center section carved in a concave shape and the outer sections carved in a convex shape.
  
  

Henrietta Johnson-First Female American Artist

• While there may have been other female artists at work in the colonies prior to 1709, there are none on record that were paid for their compositions. Henrietta Johnson (1674-1729) of Charleston, South Carolina sold portraits to neighbors and friends, the elite French Huguenots living in the city, to help support her household. She is noteworthy for being the first portraitist in the southern colonies and also for her use of pastels--at the time, considered a lesser medium--rather than oils. She is therefore also the colonies' first pastelist.