James Badger

Art Historical Context

Step into the world of colonial America with Joseph Badger's enchanting portrait *James Badger* (1760), an oil-on-canvas gem measuring 42½ x 33⅛ inches, now housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing. This work captures a young boy, likely from a prosperous New England family, posed with symbolic birds and cherries—common motifs in 18th-century portraits that evoke innocence, the soul's fleeting nature, and the abundance of youth. Joseph Badger, a self-taught Boston painter active from the 1730s to 1760s, was a pioneer of American portraiture, blending folk art simplicity with k...