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As I first entered the Baltimore Museum of Art, I was shocked. I hadn't been to an art museum since I was a child, and of course I was to young to appreciate anything. As I walked my way throughout the museum observing all of the statues, portraits and antiques, I was asking everyone that worked there where I could find paintings before 1850. After a worker explained that only a few paintings are open to public due to construction, I thought to myself I am going to be forced to choose out of like five paintings. As I walked into the exhibit, immediately I was attracted to a painting of two young boys, one black and one white. This painted using oil on canvas by an American named John Hesselius in the year of 1761. Perhaps it was the detailed outfits that the two boys were wearing, but immediately I knew I wanted to write about the painting. Even if the whole exhibit was open to view, I know I still would have chosen this painting. Charles Calvert, who is the son of Bennedict and Elizabeth Calvert, is shown here in the painting at the age of five with a young Calvert family slave. At the time of this painting, around 1761, it was common for children to be accompanied by slaves when the parents were not around to care for
Charles and his slave seem to be richly dressed in fashionable attire for the time. Their clothing seems to be very detailed with fancy buttons and lace cuffs. Charles appears to look like the average American child. He has blonde hair, blue eyes, rosy cheeks, and looks a little chubby. Charles looks like a very innocent man who perhaps could have made best friends with the slave. Due to the rich outfits though, it could be a possibility that his wealthy parents treated their slaves cruelly like many other southern Americans at the time. The slave, who is a very dark skinned child with dark brown eyes, is wearing an off-white outfit. Charles and his slave are wearing the same outfit but in different colors. Although Charles and his slave are wearing very bright outfits, the rest of the picture seems so dull. The objects in the background are painted with muggy looking colors. The blue mountains, the green grass, the blue water in the river, and the gray sky, are all painted with dull colors. Nowhere near as detailed as the clothing or the skin of the Charles or his slave. Hesselius probably used dull colors for everything else than Charles and his slave, to make them stand out from the rest of this picture. them. Slaves were used for cooking meals for the family and for babysitting the children when needed.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 932
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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