![Francis William Edmonds - The Image Pedlar [c.1844]](http://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7791/17188196984_ca038b3f54_o.jpg)
Edmonds (American, 1806 – 1863) often described stereotyped roles in what he deemed to be properly ordered families, showing women responding to superficial things and men respecting substance. The women in this scene admire the peddler's bowl of painted plaster fruit while the men tend to lessons on history (signified by the bust of George Washington) and other sensible matters. Edmonds points out the dangerous attraction of reproductions or multiples at a time when cheaply produced images proliferated. Paintings such as those created by Edmonds and his colleagues would increasingly need to compete with the lithographs, woodcuts, and other illustrations that appeared everywhere - from inexpensive pamphlets and newspapers to costly prints and gift books.
[New York Historical Society - Oil on canvas, 84.5 x 107.3 cm]