Inventing American Stories, 1765–1830

Ralph Earl (American, 1751–1801)
Elijah Boardman, 1789
Oil on canvas; 83 x 51 in. (210.8 x 129.5 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Susan W. Tyler, 1979 (1979.395)
Photograph © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

For the New Milford, Connecticut, dry-goods merchant Boardman, Earl devised a tableau that would tell the story of Boardman's profession with an encyclopedia of specific objects—iridescent taffetas, pretty calicoes, expensive imported textiles—and would advertise his own skills. Both the shopkeeper and the artist operated in the burgeoning market economy that flourished after the Revolution. A decade earlier, a rural dry-goods merchant would have been an importer with a ship at sea or a huckster with a wagon, and a country portraitist would have been itinerant. The seductive salesman who cultivates consumer desire was an entirely modern notion. Boardman's elegant attire, from his perfect coiffure to his satin waistcoat to his matching jeweled knee and shoe buckles, not only befits a man who sells luxury goods but also inspires confidence that he will expertly guide customers in making the correct choices in his shop.