Mocking idleness and turning labor [in the North] into a badge of honor made the South, with its leisured aristocracy supported by slavery, seem even more anomalous than it had been at the time of the Revolution, thus aggravating the growing sectional split in the country. Many Southern aristocrats began emphasizing their cavalier status in contrast to the money-grubbing northern Yankees. They were fond of saying that they were real gentlemen, a rare thing in America.
Joshua Reynolds (1723—92)
Oil on canvas. SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA.
Oil on canvas; 25 x 18 3/4 inches (63.5 x 47.6 cm). Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT.
Oil on canvas; 737 x 616 mm. Tate Gallery, London, England.
Oil on canvas; 39 in. x 31 1/4 in. (991 mm x 794 mm). National Portrait Gallery, London, England.
Oil on canvas; 2390 mm x 1460 mm (94.1 × 57.5 in). National Maritime Museum, London, England.
Oil on canvas; w641 x h768 cm. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT.
Oil on canvas; 750 x 620 mm. National Trust, Petworth House and Park, West Sussex, England.
Oil on canvas. Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA.
Oil on canvas; w635 x h762 cm. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT.
Oil on canvas; 50 x 39 7/8 in. (127 x 101.3 cm). The Frick Collection, New York, NY.
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (2009)