Artwork
Christmas-Time, The Blodgett Family
Christmas-Time, The Blodgett Family is an oil painting by the American Impressionist artist Eastman Johnson. It dates from 1864 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
By situating the figures within a warmly lit interior, Johnson conveys a sense of seasonal celebration while also documenting contemporary social customs.
The painting Christmas‑Time, The Blodgett Family portrays a middle‑class household interior in which a man, woman and child are gathered around a modest domestic setting, a scene that Eastman Johnson rendered as a genre depiction of everyday family life. The composition emphasizes the intimate gathering of relatives, underscoring themes of kinship and holiday domesticity that were characteristic of mid‑nineteenth‑century American genre painting. By situating the figures within a warmly lit interior, Johnson conveys a sense of seasonal celebration while also documenting contemporary social customs.
The work is part of The American Wing collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, reflecting the museum’s focus on American artistic heritage.
Technique & Style
Christmas-Time, The Blodgett Family is executed in oil paint on canvas, a standard support for mid-nineteenth-century American genre painting. The work is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing. Its modest dimensions, approximately 30 by 25 inches, place it in the intimate scale typical of domestic interior scenes.
Stylistically, it belongs to the genre painting tradition, depicting a family group of a man, woman, and child within an interior setting, consistent with Eastman Johnson's focus on everyday American life in the 1860s.
History & Provenance
Christmas-Time, The Blodgett Family (1864) by Eastman Johnson is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is listed under the classification “The American Wing” and assigned the inventory designation “The American Wing”. The painting, executed in oil on canvas (30 × 25 cm), is recorded in the museum’s collection and described in the Wikidata entry for the work. No exhibition history is documented in the provided sources.
Overview
Christmas-Time, The Blodgett Family is an oil on canvas painting that captures a domestic scene. It depicts a family assembly around a table, engaged in conversation and shared moments. The artwork offers a glimpse into a quiet, intimate gathering, emphasizing the personal interactions and the serene atmosphere of a holiday occasion.
Context
The precise rendering of domestic details in Christmas-Time, The Blodgett Family aligns with artistic tendencies observed in other American painters of the era. The artist's commitment to capturing the specifics of everyday life, from clothing textures to table settings, resonates with the work of contemporaries such as Eastman Johnson, who similarly explored genre scenes with a comparable degree of observational accuracy.
Artist & collection
Artist
Jonathan Eastman Johnson (July 29, 1824 – April 5, 1906) was an American painter and co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, with his name inscribed at its entrance.
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