How's that for business?

Highlighting America's pragmatism from the beginning:

The first American painters were generally self-taught portrait or sign painters. Their work was flat, sharply outlined, and lacking in focal point. Portraiture was, not surprisingly, the most sought-after art form, since politics stressed respect for the individual. Itinerant limners, as early painters were called, painted faceless single or group portraits in the winter and, in spring, sought customers and filled in the blanks.

(The Annotated Mona Lisa p. 72)

Oh, the possibilities for today. Haha.