"The Colored Volunteer" and "Light Artillery" and "Girls with Dolls" are companion images in which Nast uses children to illustrate the hopeful impact of the phrase “forever free” of the Emancipation Proclamation.  Click through the slideshow to learn more about the two sets of images. 

Nast painted this diminutive pair of paintings as companion pieces, meaning he painted them as a pair to be displayed together, likely in his family home.  Painted during the Civil War, these images may be read as Nast’s opinion on race relations at the time. Each toddler holds a doll of the other girl's race and each doll is dressed to look like the other seated girl. 

They are currently on display at Macculloch Hall Historical Museum, and it is the first time these paintings have ever been on public display. 

The following two slides are close up images of both girls.

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Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

Girls with Dolls

Nast used his oldest child, Julia, as the model for the white girl holding a Black doll. 

Though we do not know the identity of the model for the Black girl holding the white doll, Nast used this child as a model in at least one other image.

In his “The Emancipation of the Negroes” published in H

 on January 24, 1863, Nast models the little Black girl at home with her family after this child. 

The next two images are lithographs are in a series of five made from paintings that

commissioned from Thomas Nast. "The Colored Volunteer" and "Light Artillery" were published in 1863, the same year that President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and the first year that Black men were officially able to enlist into the Union Army. 

Nast depicts the young Black boy as an enlisted soldier, practicing marching holding a broom in place of a rifle.

In his “The Emancipation of the Negroes” published in Harper’s Weekly on January 24, 1863, Nast models the young Black boy at home with his family after this child. 

One of five colored lithographs printed in Currier and Ives

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The Colored Volunteer

Nast depicts the white boy pretending to be an officer from the comfort of his well-appointed home.

After seeing all four images, why do you think the intended audience for artwork matters? What can that tell you about a particular piece of art?

One of five colored lithographs made for Currier and Ives

Standards for Thomas Nast's Intended Audience