Folk art flourished in the years following the American Revolution

The American Museum contains an important collection of objects that come under the heading of ‘folk art’: portraits, landscapes, carved figures, and textiles made by craftspeople and jobbing painters. It’s one of our most diverse collections. Portrait painters represented include John Brewster Jr, Clementine Hunter, Joshua Johnson, Ammi Phillips, and William Matthew Prior. Monumental sculptures, which once decorated ships, cigar stores, and fairground carousels, now demand, in their gallery setting, to be reappraised as works of art.