Leisure and Labor
1858
Artist, American, 1827 - 1899

Gazing down at a blacksmith stooped over his work, an elegantly dressed man leans against a post. His graceful greyhound and the broken plow at his feet underscore his idleness. The poster behind him, which shows a grim reaper–like figure above the (misspelled) text “Stop Theif!!,” reminds us not to waste precious time.
Painted just before the Civil War, the scene may represent Northern scorn toward wealthy Southern landowners who bred greyhounds for sport and show. In political satires of the time, the dogs sometimes symbolized the Confederacy.

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 71
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 39.53 × 57.94 cm (15 9/16 × 22 13/16 in.)
framed: 56.83 × 78.11 × 10.16 cm (22 3/8 × 30 3/4 × 4 in.) -
Accession
2014.136.111
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Purchased 1859 from the artist by William Wilson Corcoran [1798-1888], Washington; gift 10 May 1869 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1859
Third Annual Exhibition of the Washington Art Association, 1859, no. 30.
Thirty-sixth Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, April - June 1859, no. 180.
1939
Life in America: A Special Loan Exhibition of Paintings Held During the Period of the New York World's Fair, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 24 April - 29 October 1939, no. 157.
1940
A Souvenir of Romanticism in Ameria; or, An Elegant Exposition of Taste and Fashion from 1812 to 1865, Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 May - 10 June 1940, unnumbered checklist.
1952
Man at Work, Denver Art Museum, 2 March - 27 April 1952, no checklist.
1960
American Painters of the South, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 23 April - 5 June 1960, no. 123.
1963
A Century and a Half of American Painting, Dulin Gallery of Art, Knoxville, 3 April - 13 May 1963, no. 8.
1966
Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 15 April - 30 September 1966, unpublished checklist.
1971
Extended loan for use by the U.S. Embassy, Moscow, 1971-1973.
1976
Corcoran [The American Genius], Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 24 January - 4 April 1976, no checklist.
1981
Of Time and Place: American Figurative Art from the Corcoran Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Cincinnati Art Museum; San Diego Museum of Art; University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga; Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Des Moines Art Center; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1981-1983, no. 6.
1984
350 Years of Art & Architecture in Maryland, Art Gallery and the Gallery of the School of Architecture, University of Maryland, College Park, 26 October - 1 December 1984, no. 27.
1993
The Century Club Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 July - 13 September 1993, unpublished checklist.
2003
Old Virginia: The Pursuit of a Pastoral Ideal, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, 8 February - 8 June 2003, no checklist.
2004
Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art 1770-1950, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 20 November 2004-7 August 2005, unpublished checklist.
2005
Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 29.
2008
The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1 March - 27 July 2008, unpublished checklist.
2013
American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013 - 28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.
Bibliography
2011
Shapiro, Emily Dana. "Frank Blackwell Mayer, Leisure and Labor." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 20, 118-119, 264, repro.
Wikidata ID
Q46628585