Badger, Joseph

Badger, Joseph

(1708–65) painter; born in Charlestown, Mass. Beginning work as a glazier and a house and sign painter, he began painting portraits in Boston some time after 1740. Because his portraits were often unsigned, many were previously attributed to John Singleton Copley and Joseph Blackburn. His paintings, characterized by unsophisticated color and naive technique, include Mrs. Cornelius Waldo (1750), Thomas Cushing (c. 1745), and James Bowdoin (c. 1746–47).

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.