Militia Training

Most likely born in Liverpool, England, James G. Clonney arrived in New York around 1830, where he began a career as a lithographer of urban scenes and depictions of animals. His precision and eye for narrative detail served him well when, probably around 1838, he turned to genre painting. "Militia Training," his most ambitious work, showcases the noise, confusion, celebratory moods, and varying degrees of skill of the young nation's volunteer troops, who regularly came together for defensive maneuvers, and to socialize as well. The activities occurring in this lively scene were closely observed - numerous preparatory drawings, such as for the dancing figure in the center (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) exist for the composition. The painting later appeared as an engraving in the illustrated annual "The Gift" in 1843, where it accompanied a sentimental story about two friends. Although indebted to British models, particularly the popular genre scenes of the Scots painter Sir David Wilkie, Clonney included elements that make this painting recognizably an American scene, from the patchwork quilt thrown over the beer stand to the prominently displayed flag. In rural scenes such as this, Clonney often included images of African Americans dancing and playing the fiddle. These paintings helped establish the racist mistrel-show stereotype that idealized African-American life in the nineteenth century.