The Musicale, Barber Shop, Trenton Falls, New York (work of art)
Artwork Info
Key Ideas
- This painting is an example of a genre scene. This type of artwork depicts scenes from everyday life. Genre paintings often feature ordinary people doing common activities.
- This work depicts an experience the artist and his wife had at a resort hotel in upstate New York.
- Thomas Hicks was a 19th-century American portrait painter. He is best known for painting the first oil portrait of Abraham Lincoln.
- Hicks’s approach to portraying African American people with respect and dignity in this painting challenged the demeaning stereotypes of his time.
- This work of art is one of the first American paintings to depict a racially integrated musical group.
Learn More
The Musicale is one of the earliest American paintings to portray an integrated musical group. It is also notable for its depiction of African American people in a way that does not exaggerate or distort their features. This was unusual in American art during the 19th century, when minstrel shows and derogatory racial stereotypes were common.
The painting depicts a string band performing in the barbershop of the Trenton Falls Hotel, a summer resort in upstate New York. The barbershop, which was located in a separate building on the hotel grounds, was a male-only space. In the painting several men are shown inside the shop, watching the band perform. A group of women has gathered to watch from outside. The man standing near the doorway is the hotel’s barber, William Brister, who was known for his singing. The artist also depicted himself in this scene; he’s the man holding a sketchbook. His wife is among the women outside the shop.
Thomas Hicks was a successful and fashionable artist in New York City in the 1800s. He was skilled at capturing the likeness and personality of his subjects. He sometimes included props in his paintings that represented his subject’s interests. Hicks is best known for painting the first oil portrait of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, before he became president. Hicks painted portraits of many other celebrities of his time. These include poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and author and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe. Hicks also painted landscapes, historical and religious subjects, and genre scenes like The Musicale.
A genre scene, or genre painting, depicts moments from everyday life. Genre paintings often show ordinary people engaging in their daily activities. The scenes can be realistic or imagined. Some genre paintings communicate social or moral messages.
Additional Resources
Resources for Teachers
- Read an article about Thomas Hicks from the National Academy of Design.
- Visit a Tate Gallery resource to explore the history of genre painting.
Resources for Students
- Compare and contrast another 19th-century genre painting in the NCMA collection with The Musicale.
- Read the artist’s biography and view one of his landscape paintings.
Images
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The Musicale, Barber Shop, Trenton Falls, New York