About American Folk Painting

American Folk Painting, like other forms of folk art, is that type of work characterized by an artistic innocence which distinguishes it from the more formal decorative and fine arts. With its great charm and genuine appeal, folk or primitive painting is a vital contributor to our cultural history, for it captured on canvas a way of life now gone. The first colonial painters imitated the works by Dutch and English artists. Even by the time of the Revolution, few American artists had any academic training. Consequently, many of the works they produced display a lack of emphasis, are weak in organization and composition and combine flat, unshaded form with patches of bright color. 
Since only the wealthy could afford the services of a professionally trained artist, most Americans were satisfied with the work of craftsmen painters or portraitists with little or no education in the field. These itinerant painters, who often traveled from door to door urging people to "preserve their features" were called Limners. The term is taken from the Latin luminare, which means to light up or illuminate. These limners usually got their start in the art world by working under a craftsman such as a sign painter, house painter, coach painter or gilder. During the summer these men and women would close their shops and travel; often doing a likeness or portrait for board and lodging or producing a landscape and sketches for an affluent householder at some vacation spa. The subjects were usually seated or standing amidst identifying symbols or attributes; fans and flowers for ladies; swords for soldiers; 
Although the folk artists might be able to produce a good likeness, or at least one which pleased their patrons, they usually found detailed anatomy and linear perspective beyond their technical skills. instruments for musicians; and dolls and hobbyhorses for children. Due to the frequent use of the same jewelry and wardrobes in many paintings, a legend developed that the wandering artists painted bodies and backgrounds of portraits in the off season and just added heads when the commission was awarded. There is no evidence to support this theory; in fact, there is much to contradict it. The uncompleted sketches of the period show heads without bodies, not bodies without heads. it is also known that the artists carried props of jewelry and clothing which most likely accounts for the similarities in wardrobe. American folk painting reached its peak of popularity after 1800 when the rising middle class of the new nation arrived at the point of self-consciousness where its members desired to express pride in their new status and their accomplishments. new England, especially Massachusetts and Connecticut, was the first area where large numbers of paintings were produced. This was a populous region with an affluent middle class as well as a center of strong craft tradition. Later, however, as the population pushed westward, Limners could be found at work in new York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois. In 1839 the daguerreotype was developed. This introduction of the photographic image led to steady decline of limner art. After 1850, painted portraits once again became a luxury commissioned by the very wealthy and executed by professionals.