Connecticut or New York State
Other portraits by the hand of this unknown, yet accomplished painter are found in the collections of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection in Colonial Williamsburg and in private collections. The artist combined his knowledge of Neoclassical American portrait painting, as it was practiced in Connecticut and New York by artists such as Trumbull and Vanderlyn, with vernacular traditions of itinerant New England and New York painters-such as Ammi Phillips during his Border Limner period-and a heavy dash of his own individuality. The result is an engaging and memorable eccentric portrait that has such a particular quality that his work can be attributed from collection to collection.
In addition, it is an early-American tonsorial masterpiece. Barbara Luck at the AARFAC has related three other male portraits to this example; see Gentleman Farmer, plate 202 on page 222 of Beatrix Rumford, American Folk Portraits. Also see the catalog by the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts, Early Arts of the Genesee Valley, 1974, plate 8, Gentleman with Ledger, oil on wood panel, dated 1823. There is a portrait of Ebenezer Mack of Ithaca, New York, which was published in the Maine Antiques Digest, May 1994, page 15-E; this is the best documented painting from the group having come directly from the Mack House in Ithaca. In addition to the preceding portraits, the portrait of John Lent, oil on canvas, probably from Leroy, New York, is illustrated on page 24 of Early Arts of the Genesee Valley.
All these portraits are distinguished by unruly hair. The similarity of the five paintings and their slight differences suggests a single hand developing through time from a country limner to a somewhat more sophisticated painter.
Item Date: Circa 1805
Measurement: 24.5" x 20.5"
Material: Oil on canvas
Item Condition: Extremely minor touches; remounted on Masonite.
Provenance: Childs Gallery to Private Collection, to AAAWT, to Private Collection in 2016.
Price: $5,850
SKU 648-37
For More Information, Please Contact David Hillier at 978-597-8084 or email drh@aaawt.com.
Please click on images to expand.
