"The book is the first to examine the life and art of Richard Caton Woodville (1825-1855), an antebellum genre painter and shrewd observer of urban society and politics. Before Woodville died at the age of thirty, he produced a small body of work that includes such iconic paintings as Politics in an Oyster House and War News from Mexico (both 1848). In lively prose complemented by vivid illustrations, Justin Wolff presents all the available information on the elusive Woodville and perceptively analyzes nearly every work of art the artist produced. In doing so, he shows that Woodville's paintings engaged their moment in history in surprisingly complex ways."--BOOK JACKET.