Art Analysis: The Mason Children

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In the painting “The Mason Children,” we catch a glimpse at an era and style of living now foreign to modern day America. The painting, whose artist is unknown, portrays three young children, an older boy and two younger girls, dressed simply in black and white but with elements of luxury: The boy carries a silver plated cane, and the older of the two girls has a chinese silk fan, as well as a necklace of red beads. This painting, in many ways, is a wonderful representation of life for the early Puritan colonists of New England. While many of the colonists of other parts of the “New World” were expeditions headed by rich young white men in the hopes of conquest, the Puritan colony contained not just men, but entire families, including young

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