The Greenwood-Lee Family, 1747
Born in Massachusetts and apprenticed as an engraver, John Greenwood (1727–1792) painted dozens of commissioned works there before moving to Surinam in 1752. He painted this scene of his own family at the age of twenty. Group portraits with so many people were rare in the colonies, and it is a technically impressive composition. Greenwood himself is at the right rear, wigless (he wears a velvet cap to keep his head warm) and holding a palette and brushes. The table displays a basket of needlework and a volume of The Spectator, the popular London periodical published by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. Photograph © 2014 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bequest of Henry Lee Shattuck in memory of the late Morris Gray, 1983.34.