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Description
Annie L. Gorham, an artist and inventor, first learned to paint from her mother, who taught art locally in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. After a period of study in Boston, she would later set up a studio of her own focused on teaching decorative painting. This small-scale painting of a Black field laborer presents a format favored by Gorham, one that could be installed on a tabletop easel. By 1889, Gorham held two patents: one for an ornamentation process for decorating clay vases (1883) and the other for a writing desk that could double as a painting easel (1889). Her interest in utility and decoration underscores the aims of the arts and crafts movement, which proffered the ideals of aesthetic functionality. In 1883 and 1891, Gorham displayed both her decorative painting and inventions at the Women’s Department of the New England Manufacturer’s & Mechanics Institute Fair in Boston.