Just for Fun / History of Silhouette / Silhouettist Bios / Folk Portrait Artists / History of Footstools

Below are brief biographies of some of my favorite folk art portraitists.  These are the a small portion of the artists of the antique folk portraits I collect and sell.  I add new artists to this biographical page as time permits and information becomes available.  Enjoy and please email me if you are seeking information about a particular artist.

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A. Charles (born circa 1768; active 1786-1807)

A. Charles is known for his portrait miniatures and silhouettes, which he painted on card, glass and on ivory. His story is interesting in that he seems to have perpetually elevated his standing in his advertisements. He advertised himself as the "Original Inventor of painting on glass", an endorsement that was, in all likelihood, not true. Although silhouettists and painters of the late 18th century were given to self-endorsement, Charles was a braggart to the point of drawing public criticism. He advertised that he was a Royal Academician, which he was not. He also advertised that he had studied "the Italian, Flemish, and all the great Schools," of which there is no confirming record. When he began to advertise himself as the artist to the Prince (which was a true statement) and raised his prices, a blistering criticism was printed in the London paper...which shows that Charles was definitely a well-known profilist who was in direct competition with the great John Miers and Mrs. Beetham. Had he been an artist who waltzed through life unnoticed, he might have gotten away with his boasts. Since he was obviously in the public eye and compared to his contemporaries, his boasting became a public embarrassment.

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The Da Lee Family:  Justus Da Lee (1793-1878), Amon G.J. Da Lee (1820-1879), Richard W.M. Da Lee (1809-1868)

Long recognized as one of the great American folk art portrait artists, reliable information about Justus Da Lee and his family have only recently been published.¹  Painstakingly rendered watercolor, pencil, and ink portrait miniatures, such as the one offered, and elaborate family records have long been attributed to Da Lee.  Now we know that portrait painting was a family business in which Justus enlisted the help of his son Amon and his brother Richard.  Born in Pittstown, New York, the obviously artistically inclined Justus enlisted in the Cambridge militia during the War of 1812, where he served as a musician.  After his war duties, the highly educated Justus served as a school teacher until he lost his job for "usurping government."   By 1826, Justus exhibited his artistic ability in a sketchbook entitled "Emblematical Figures, Representations & To Please The Eye."  Justus referred to himself in the sketchbook as a "professor of penmanship."

Justus' painting career began in the mid-1830s.  He had a family record printed which he then further embellished with figures, flowers and decorative elements.  It is at this time that he also began painting the distinctive small profile portraits for which he is best known.  Justus taught his son Amon and his brother Richard to paint portraits.  A 1837 letter from Justus to Richard states that painting had become a family business.  Justus' own letters tell us that when he arrived in a new town, he distributed advertising cards to homes along a single street.  The next day, he returned to the houses, showing samples and taking commissions.  His prices were "3 dol. for a single one, set [framed]--or 5 dol. for husband & wife, set,' and a price of $2.50 each if the whole family was painted.  Unlike most itinerant watercolor profilists of the era, Justus took his time painting the profiles stating "I detained some of them from 1 or 2 hours being determined to give the very best satisfaction."  Perhaps it was the slow, deliberate perfectionist quality of the Da Lee work that brought about the end of the family portrait business. 

Letters from Justus and from Richard show that they often complained that, although everyone was pleased with their work, their itinerant trips only took in a small amount of money.  In 1845, Justus wrote "Amon . . . has given up going out to take ports anymore, it does not agree with him at all . . . this portrait business is calculated to kill us all."  By 1848, two business directories in Buffalo, NY list Justus as an artist but also list Justus & Amon as grocers.  Apparently, painting was no longer a full time occupation for the Da Lee family.  The 1850 census lists Justus as a teacher and by 1856, records show that Justus was blind and penniless.  He died in 1871 while living with his daughter Harriet in Wisconsin.

Thanks to the scholarship of Suzanne Rudnick Payne and Michael Payne, we now know that portraits previously attributed to Justus Da Lee must be attributed to the Justus Da Lee family.  The Paynes tell us that known examples of work by Amon are "confusingly similar" to the work of Justus.  There are no known signed examples of Richard's work but the portrait of Richard's son indicates that Richard's work was also very similar.  Moreover, much of the work seems to have been a collaborative affair as Justus wrote in 1839 that Amon was painting the dresses and Justus was doing the rest of the portrait.

The Paynes describe the Da Lee portraits as follows:

"These small profile portraits were executed in watercolor, pencil, and ink with meticulous detail and delicacy using minute brushwork.  A few portraits were painted on paper, but the vast majority was done on stiff bristol board, as it was called when the portraits were made.  Ink and pencil were used to delineate the facial features and hair, and then watercolor was used to render flesh tones, hair, and clothing.  Gum-arabic glazed highlights were used to further define the details of the clothing.  Small details, such as jewelry and hair ornaments, were always so finely rendered that they invite examination with a magnifying glass.  The portraits have an unusual delicacy and quality of detail."

The faces in adult portraits were always presented in profile.  Men's bodies were always profile.  A few of the earliest of the women's portraits were painted with a full frontal pose.  By the 1840s the Da Lees were using both a three-quarter frontal and a profile pose for the women.  Most of the portraits are contained within solid-black painted oval spandrels and many have blue wash along the inside of the spandrel.  Although it has been surmised that the black painted spandrel was in the style of daguerreotypes, the Da Lees were using this format in the 1830s before daguerreotypes were widely offered.

References: 

Anderson, Marna A Loving Likeness American Folk Portraits of the Nineteenth Century, (Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (1992) 11-13.

Payne, Suzanne Rudnick and Michael Payne, "To Please The Eye Justus Da Lee and His Family", Folk Art Magazine, 47 (Winter 2004/2005).  Pdf copy of article published with permission of the American Folk Art Museum.  (The article is contained in a large pdf file and may take a while to load onto your computer.  It has beautiful color photos and is worth the wait.)

Rumsford, Beatrix, American Folk Portraits Paintings and Drawings from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Boston:  Little Brown, in association with Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (1981) p. 77-79.

¹Biographical information and description of the Da Lee family work gleaned from Suzanne Rudnick Payne and Michael Payne, "To Please The Eye, Justus Da Lee and His Family", Folk Art Magazine, 47 (Winter 2004/2005). 

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J.A. Davis (1821-1855)

When Jane Anthony Davis signed her work, it was as "J.A. Davis" and until research done by Arthur and Sybil Kern in 1981, she was thought to be a man, probably from Rhode Island or Connecticut.  Through meticulous research and the discovery of family descendents, the Kerns learned that Jane Anthony was born in Rhode Island on September 24, 1821, married Edward Nelson Davis of Connecticut in 1841 and died in Rhode Island at the young age of 33 on April 28, 1855.  Ms. Davis attended the Warren Ladies Seminary in Warren, Rhode Island for at least two terms in 1838.  All of her known dated portraits were painted after her education at the Seminary.  This suggests that the seventeen year old Jane may have begun painting seriously while attending the Seminary.  From found dated portraits, Ms. Davis appears to have taken two breaks from her portrait painting:  first the years 1840 to 1842--a hiatus probably attributed to Jane preparing for her wedding and then moving to Connecticut; second from 1844 to 1848--coinciding with Mr. and Ms. Davis moving back to Rhode Island and the birth of Jane's second child.  The last dated portrait found was painted on April 28, 1855, just eight months prior to the death of Jane Anthony Davis.  She is buried in Providence, Rhode Island at Swan Point Cemetery.

Davis typically drew the entire composition of her portraits in pencil prior to her thin application of watercolor which she used in a naive style.  She painted faces with an opaque bluish-white watercolor and added detailed facial features with graphite.  Davis' sitters are almost always costumed completely in black with color only being used to highlight the penciled facial figures and other objects in the composition.  She favored a 4" x 5" format of thin paper for her work.

References:

Anderson, Marna A Loving Likeness American Folk Portraits of the Nineteenth Century, (Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (1992).  14-15.

Kern, Arthur B. and Kern, Sybil B., "Genealogy and Historical Research: "On the Importance of Genealogical Methodology in Researching Early New England Folk Portraitists", The Art of Family, Genealogical Artifacts in New England, Ed. D. Brenton Simons & Peter Benes, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston 2002. 248-54.

Rumsford, Beatrix, American Folk Portraits Paintings and Drawings from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Boston:  Little Brown, in association with Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (1981). 79-82.

Please view the J.A. Davis portraits currently in stock on the Portraits page

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Joseph H. Davis (1811-1865) (active 1832-1837)

Approximately 160 watercolor folk portraits have been attributed to Joseph H. Davis since his work was identified in the 1930s.  However, little was known about the artist until the biographical research done by Arthur and Sybil Kern.  The Kerns confirmed the common speculation that the artist Davis was the man from Limington, Maine known as "Pine Hill Joe."  Pine Hill Joe was remembered as "a farmer inclined to suddenly leave his farm to go wandering from town to town 'painting pictures of people on little sheets of paper.'"²

According to the Kerns, Joseph H. Davis was born on August 10, 1811 to Joseph and Phebe (née Small) Davis in Limington, Maine.  He was 21 years old when the first of his known portraits was painted in 1832.  Davis is known to have painted in the Lebanon-Berwick area of Maine and Dover-Somersworth area of New Hampshire.  Many of his subjects had a connection with the Freewill Baptist Church, leading to supposition that Davis was connected with this church.  Davis married Elizabeth Patterson on November 5, 1835.  Five days after the marriage, the first of what was to become many land transactions was recorded in what was apparently Davis' new profession as a land trader.

Davis' most prolific years of painting appear to be 1835 to 1837, after which no dated paintings have been found. [The painting pictured here and offered on the Portraits page appears to negate the previous statement as the inscription on the verso of the frame dates it at 1838.  However, the inscription does not appear to be contemporary with the painting and family history often includes errors.]   He may have increased his production of paintings to support his new wife.  Both the increase of his success as a land trader and the impending birth of his daughter in 1838 may have contributed to the end of his career as an artist in 1837.  Perhaps he felt the need for less travel than was required by an itinerant artist and perhaps the land trading business paid him more handsomely than the art business in which he charged only $1.50 per portrait.³  After the last known portrait was painted in 1837, the Davises moved often, living in Massachusetts, Maine, and New Jersey.  His success as a land trader is indicated by numerous recorded deeds.  Joseph H. Davis' death is listed in the records of Woburn, Massachusetts as follows:  "Davis, Joseph H., son of Joseph and Phebe (b. in Limington, Me.), of disease of liver.  May 28, 1865, 53y.9m.18d." 

As an artist, the work of Joseph H. Davis stands out as a stunning example of the American Fancy Period of the 1830s even though his work is naïve and obviously self-taught.  He depicts his sitters in profile, with their bodies slightly turned to reveal more of their clothing.  Single figures generally face the right.  Couples generally face each other, whether painted together or in two individual paintings.  The great majority of his work depicts sitters in full length, although five half-length recorded portraits have been attributed to Davis.  The trademark of Davis' work is his glorious use of color and pattern in the vibrant floorcloths or patterned floor decoration that he placed under most of his subjects' feet and the garishly grained or paint decorated tables and chairs he included in family portraits.  These family or couples portraits portray a variety of personal accessories that are likely more symbolic than real.  Davis often included the exterior of the couple's homestead in a painting that he placed on the background wall (which was usually elaborately swagged).  Women often carried colorful patterned reticules or purses.  Several portraits include a cat.  Books symbolized the education of the family and the inclusion of a bible represented their faith.  Davis' settings are based on an artificial formula that varied little from painting to painting.  That said, they are fabulous examples of the exuberance of the American Fancy Period and were surely loved by their consignors because they depicted the sitters  in the American middle-class dream parlors of the 1830s.  The portraits and accoutrements were drawn on wove paper in pencil and then painted in with watercolor.  Some of his work included an inscription across the bottom with the names of the sitters, sometimes their ages, birthdates, and hometown.  As of 1992, only six signed works had been found.  One of the six was signed "Joseph H. Davis/Left Hand/Painter."

References:

Anderson, Marna A Loving Likeness American Folk Portraits of the Nineteenth Century, (Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (1992).  16-17.

D'Ambrosio, Paul S. and Emans, Charlotte M., Folk Art's Many Faces:  Portraits in the New York State Historical Association, New York State Historical Ass'n, Cooperstown 1987.  58-64

Kern, Arthur B. and Kern, Sybil B., "Genealogy and Historical Research: "On the Importance of Genealogical Methodology in Researching Early New England Folk Portraitists", The Art of Family, Genealogical Artifacts in New England, Ed. D. Brenton Simons & Peter Benes, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston 2002. 254-59.

Rumsford, Beatrix, American Folk Portraits Paintings and Drawings from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Boston:  Little Brown, in association with Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (1981). 83-87.

Savage, Gail & Norbert H., and Sparks, Esther, Three New England Watercolor Painters. Art Institute of Chicago, 1974. 22-41.

²Kern, supra at 97, (quoting Sinney, Frank O., Primitive Painters in America:  An Anthology by Jean Lipman and Alice Winchester (New York:  Books for Libraries Press, 1950).

³D'Ambrosio, supra at 59.

Please view the Joseph H. Davis portrait currently offered on the Portraits page

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Charles Allen Duval (1808-1872)

Charles Allen Duval was born in Ireland in 1808. He took up painting after a jaunt at sea. Around 1833, Duval moved to Manchester, England where he developed a large following for his paintings. In Miniatures Dictionary and Guide, Daphne Foskett called him a “witty writer” and I found evidence that Duval contributed articles for North of England Magazine and authored pamphlets about the American Revolutionary War. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1836-1872 and also in Manchester and Liverpool. Duval had a large audience for his paintings in London where he also worked and was said to be “a good artist.” He painted portraits, figure subjects, and portrait miniatures. He was an engraver and lithographer.

In 1865, Duval lent a miniature portrait to the South Kensington Museum for exhibit. The catalogue for that exhibit incorrectly recorded his name as Du Val – a mistake that is often repeated.

Duval’s work currently resides in the collections of the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

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Jacob Eichholtz was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania November 2, 1776. He started his professional life as a coppersmith. He took painting lessons from Thomas Sully at least as early as 1808, but he was unable to devote himself to art until 1811. In 1812, he studied under Gilbert Stuart in Boston. Eichholtz was a regular exhibitor at the Society of Artists and the Pennsylvania Academy. Although he made occasional visits to Baltimore and Washington, Eichholtz lived and worked primarily in Lancaster and Philadelphia.

Eichholtz was recently the subject of an exhibition held concurrently at three institutions: the Lancaster County Historical Society (project headquarters), the Heritage Center Museum of Lancaster County (now the Lancaster Cultural History Museum), and the Phillips Museum of Art at Franklin & Marshall College. A catalog of that exhibition was written by Thomas R. Ryan.

Eichholtz' wood panel portraits tended to be small, painted inside a faux oval and painted in profile. His canvas portraits tended to be larger, painted more academically with sitters facing the viewer. The small, wood panel portraits are favored by collectors of folk art who like the naïveté which he tends to exhibit less in his larger portraits. This pair may be brother and sister as they both face the same direction and have a very strong family resemblance.

References:

Rumford, Beatrix T. (ed.) American Folk Portraits Paintings and Drawings form the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center. New York Graphic Society, 1981. 91-92.

Ryan, Thomas R. (ed.) The Worlds of Jacob Eichholtz, Portrait Painter of the Early Republic, Lancaster Country Historical Society, 2003.

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J.H. Gillespie, Profile Artist (1793-after 1849)

James H. Gillespie started his career as a painter of miniature portraits and silhouettes in England as early as 1810, although the earliest known dated example of his work was done in 1816.  He crossed the globe to enter Nova Scotia in the 1820s.  From Canada, he migrated into the United States where he is known to have worked in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Maine.  His advertisements tell us that he charged 25 cents for plain black profiles, 50 cents for profiles shaded in black, 1 dollar to finish the silhouettes in bronze and 2 dollars for “Features neatly painted in colours.”  The outlines for his silhouettes and portraits were achieved by means of “several mechanical and optical instruments.”  His demand was so great that, to save time that the sitter needed be present, he took outlines of the sitters in the morning and completed the rest of the portrait later that same day.  The demand for Gillespie's work also allowed him to increase the price of his color portraits from $2 to $4 by the time he hit Baltimore in 1837.  By 1842, Gillespie's U.S. tour was finished and he was working in Toronto, where he stayed until at least 1849.

Gillespie painted miniature portraits and silhouettes with a practiced and careful hand.  The features are crisply delineated and his painting style is similar to the work of an artist who painted portraits on ivory.  I am, however, unaware of any portraits on ivory that have been attributed to him.  His silhouettes are generally found painted in shades of dark grey with black pigment added to show clothing details.  His use of gum Arabic to heighten detail is masterful and subtle.  Several monotone portraits backed by dark grey painted background have been found and are quite distinctive.

As a result of their recent research into the life and work of Gillespie, Suzanne and Michael Payne note that Gillespie worked in six distinctive styles:

Style 1:  Simple silhouette--profile head and neck painted in grey-black with gum arabic highlights of the ear, eye, and the hair.  Not watercolor detail added.  The Paynes tell us this was his 25-cent portrait.

Style 2:  Silhouette face with painted body--profile face painted grey-black with body carefully outlined and then painted in dark colors.  No gum arabic detailing the face or hair, but painted hair strands added.  Eyelashes are drawn with delicate brushstrokes.  Neck between face and body is outlined, with details added.  Extensive use of gum arabic to highlight the clothing.  According to the Paynes, this was his 50-cent profile.

Style 3:  White face on black background--profiled face shows the features carefully modeled using pencil, ink, and grey wash watercolor details.  The painted grey-black (carefully painted with no brushstrokes) provides contrast.  Sitter's clothing is depiected in a grey-black that is either slightly lighter or darker than the background.  Thick gum arabic highlights the clothing with a very think line of gum arabic defining the bust.  This monochromatic style appear to be the portrait that Gillespie advertised as "in imitation of Copper-Plate busts."  These portraits sold for 5 shillings while he was working in England.  My own notation to the Paynes' descriptions of this style is that I have seen several on which the background and features are painted a brownish-copper color that closely seems to imitate the sepia tones of many copper plate prints of the period.  To the left you can see an example with the grey-black and one with the brownish-copper painting.

Style 4:  Silhouette with bronzed highlights--profile painted grey-black with bronze paint highlights used for hair, ear, necklace, and dress.  According to the Paynes, Gillespie charged $1 for this portrait style.

Style 5:  Watercolor profile portrait--profile painted with watercolor, ink and pencil used to model the features.  A distinctive background shading provides what Gillespie advertised as "drapery".  This background provides a good means for identifying his work.  Shading around the perimeter of the portrait is achieved with large dabs of dark browns and blues concentrated on the lower right and left sides of the figure and a light blue color applied with minute brushstrokes on the top.  The darker drapery catches the viewer's eye first and draws it towards the face.  A few examples have only light blue coloration around the entire perimeter of teh portrait.  Clothing usually painted in dark tones of black or blue, with colored buttons or jewelry and gum arabic highlights.  These oval portraits have been found in lockets, wood frames, and stamped brass frames.  It appears that Gillespie produced more of this style in the U.S. than the other five styles.  The Paynes tell us that this is the style that Gillespie first offered for $2 and later for $4.

Style 6:  Less detailed watercolor profile portrait--profile face is less modeled and simpler than style 5.  The body is less elaborately drawn and there is no background shading.  This style has only been found framed in a square format.  This style has been found with sitters from Maine and Canada.  Gillespie's price for this style is unknown.

Payne, Suzanne Rudnick and Payne, Michael R., "Six Choices for the Sitter, James H. Gillespie (1793-after 1849), Antiques & Fine Art, 200 (Summer/Autumn 2008).

Please view the Gillespie profiles currently in stock on the Silhouettes and Portraits pages

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William Kennedy (1818-after 1870)

 Prior-Hamblin Group of Artists

From American Folk Portraits Paintings and Drawings form the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, we learn the following about William Kennedy:

"Kennedy is perhaps the least well known of the portraitists referred to as "Prior Hamblin" artists.  To date no contact between him and any other member of this stylistically linked group of painters has been documented.  The opportunity for exposure to William Matthew Prior's work certainly existed, however, as is readily apparent upon comparing recorded dates and locations of activity for the two artists in both New England and Maryland.  Especially noteworthy is the fact that Prior's signed Baltimore works bear an East Monument Street address only a few doors from where Kennedy worked from 1856 to 1859.

Recent research by the Folk Art Center has revealed fourteen signed examples of Kennedy's work, which provide the stylistic basis for an additional thirty-nine attributions.  Peculiarities of his anatomical descriptions include exaggerated shading around the nose, a U-shaped configuration connection the eyebrows and nose of the subject, a dark line between the lips--often with T formations at each corner of the mouth--and a particularly distinctive curvature of the extended fingers of the subject's hands.  Occasionally Kennedy's portraits incorporate devises like a landscape view through a window or door, or objects such as a rattle, flute, stick and hoop, drumsticks, or a basket of flowers.  But the props he used most frequently were a rose in the outstretched hands of female subjects, and a book in the hands of male sitters.  Although he sometimes depicted children full length, either seated or standing, his portraits on canvas generally show a half-length subject seated in a side chair against a background that is either draped of shaded half light and half dark.  Kennedy painted likenesses on canvases of standard sizes and of the small academy board variety frequently associated with artists of the Prior-Hamblin group."

Rumford, Beatrix T. American Folk Portraits Paintings and Drawings form the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center. New York Graphic Society, 1981. 136-137.

Please view the William Kennedy portrait currently in stock on the  Portraits page.

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Abraham Parsell was born in Neshanic, New Jersey on June 17, 1791.  He married Mary Richards in Essex Country, NJ on March 23 1819.  The had three children, but only on, John H. survived. 

Although the more common practice for portraitists of the early 19th century was an itinerant practice, Parsell moved his family to New York City where he competed with academically trained artists.  He shows up in the New York City directories, listed as a miniature painter, as early as 1820.  He continued to prosper as a miniaturist in New York City for at least 36 years....he must have been well-thought of by his clientele.

Parsell's early work is noted for the lack of hands and props and the more subtly colored, less complex backgrounds.  Later works are distinguished by his use of "long, elegant fingers, pronounced eyelids, and penetrating eyes, set against a stippled background."  Sitters often hold a book or rolled newspaper or document, eyeglasses and, rarely, a family pet.  Sitters' clothing is stylishly depicted, often with elaborate jewelry and hairstyles.  Backgrounds of many later portraits "have a dramatic sunset appearance, with clouds of blues, oranges, and pinks.  Shades of brown stippled pigment are often included in the background either alone or in conjunction with the atmospheric clouds."

Parsell's later portraits show his good understanding of ivory as a medium.  He took full advantage of ivory's translucence by painting areas of the back of the ivory in shades of blue, reddish brown, and orange to produce muted tonalities on the front of the portrait.  He scored the ivory surface with a group of barely visible lines to secure the paint.  He is also known for the use of gum arabic to highlight the clothing and sitter's details.

Interestingly, Parsell, who died on February 10, 1856 at 65 years old, left several will codicils because he couldn't seem to decide whether or not to leave all of his money and property to his wife if she remarried.  His last codicil left her the money and property, but with restrictions if she remarried.  Poor Mary did not remarry, living 17 more years

DiCicco, Vincent and Fertig, Howard P., "Abraham Parsell, Miniature Painter", Antiques & Fine Art (8th Anniversary Issue). (Online article found at antiquesandfinearts.com).

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Clarissa Peters was born in North Andover, Massachusetts to Elizabeth Farrington Davis and John Peters.  She was fifth of twelve children born to a family that had been prominent in local affairs for generations.  Even though there are no records of Clarissa's early training, it is assumed that Clarissa attended Franklin Academy (the first incorporated school in Massachusetts to admit young ladies) because her younger sister Emily attended the academy from 1836 to 1838.  Another sister, Sarah Peters Grozelier also became a miniature portraitist.

Clarissa's earliest known artistic endeavor is a beautifully decorated friendship album that is among a collection of other family papers at the North Andover Historical Society.  Entries in the album date from 1829 to 1832 and include twenty-two delicate watercolor floral and foliate vignettes that show her eye for detail, color and composition.

In 1835, Clarissa was living in Boston painting miniatures as well as giving lessons in art.  While in Boston, Clarissa met and, in 1839, married her mentor Moses Baker Russell.  Clarissa and Moses worked closely to expand their successful miniature portrait business.  Clarissa's work closely resembles the work of her husband and there is speculation that they worked together on many pieces--a practice that was not uncommon among artists of the era.

Clarissa first exhibited her work in 1841 at the Third Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association in Boston.  Several works by her husband were also included in the exhibition.  The Boston Daily Mail printed the following laudatory comments about the Russell's work:

Mr. R. has four Miniatures on exhibition, and his wife three.  They are all very beautiful. . . . .  Mr. Russell is a very talented and successful artist, and his wife paints the likeness of a lady with much accuracy and beauty of coloring.  Their contributions to the Anthenæum have been much admired -- but their extensive practice, and general success is the best test of their talent.

Clarissa shared a studio with her husband at the centrally located Boston address of 21 School Street from 1840 to 1851.  The Russells were active in the artistic life of Boston and participated in many local exhibitions.  As a result of their hard work and great talent, their practice was quite successful during a time when people were moving away from portrait painting in favor of the cheaper and more easily obtainable daguerreotype.  The front page story in the Boston Evening Transcript of her death in 1854 is testimony of Clarissa Peters Russell's place among the respected artists of Boston. 

Despite the similarities to the work of her husband, Clarissa's work is "quite distinctive:  charming, somewhat naïve likenesses of their subjects who are almost always women and children."  Her subjects have oversized limpid eyes with eyelids and irises heavily outlined, making the eyes the most prominent feature.  The mouth is small and seems a bit pinched in relation to the large eyes.  She generally set off the mouth with small marks at each corner and a shadow below the lower lip.  Clarissa generally used a frontal pose of the head and shoulders (sometimes she used three-quarter lengths for children), placing the subject close to the picture plane to create a sense of immediacy with the viewer.  The pale skin tones that she used contrast with the deep shades of fabrics.  She used a hatched, striated background for which she favored grey green and purple backgrounds but also used unique combinations of the colors brown, pink, green, light blue, and white.  Clarissa Russell almost exclusively painted children or women.  She almost never signed her work.  When she did sign, she most often used the moniker "M.B. Russell", showing the great influence that her husband had on her career and attributing to the decades of misattribution of her work to her husband.

In 1842, the Boston Almanac listed twelve miniature painters.  By 1854 only one was listed, Mrs. M.B. Russell.  The fact that she was the lone survivor in a world that had turned away from hand painted portraits for the daguerreotype demonstrates that she offered the public something the photograph could not.

Holton, Randall L., "Mrs. Moses B. Russell Boston Miniaturist - Bibliography", The Magazine Antiques (December 1999) (online article found at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1026/is_6_156/ai_58468287)

Johnson, Dale T., American Portrait Miniatures In The Manney Collection.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990.  196-98.

Please view the Mrs. Moses B. Russell portrait currently in stock on the  Portraits page.

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William Matthew Prior (1806-1873)

William Matthew Prior was born to in Bath, Maine to sea captain, Matthew Prior, and his wife.  Although little is known about his early training, the inscription on an 1824 portrait indicates that Prior may have received some training from Charles Codman. Codman was a portrait, landscape, marine, and sign painter who worked in Portland, Maine as early as 1823.

His son, Matthew Prior gave the following account of his father:

My father--yes--my father was thought a great deal of.  He used to start out early in the he morning and always found plenty of work to do.  It seems he was an independent young man, full of ambition, and he worked his way up in the scales so fast that in his early twenties he painted a portrait of A. Hammett, Esp.  It was exhibited at the Boston Anthenæum in 1831.  When he was a small boy he painted the portrait of a neighbor on the barn door, which created quite an excitement in the village.   yes, he heard considerable about it.  Young as he was, he made up his mind then and there to become an artist, and when he was old enough he took up the trade of the itinerant portrait painter, walking along the dusty roads with a pack on his back. . . . . . 

Father was always an itinerant portrait painter, but now he acquired a horse and wagon, and accompanied by his wife he would start out with the back of the wagon full of canvases, and in this way he journeyed far afield throughout this state and other states as well, where, to this day, you may run across his paintings.  When his two children grew out of babyhood, he carried them along with him, which made quite a family party, so it must have been quite a circumstance to put them all up for the purpose of getting a portrait painted.  it was the habit of the day to give these artists food and lodging, which was included in the price of the portrait.⁴

Prior demonstrated that he was fully capable of painting realistic paintings and portraits in the academic style and did so upon request. He practiced a most practical pricing philosophy in which he offered a sitter either a fully realistic portrait or, for those who wanted to save money, he offered the naïve, “flat” style that is so desirable among collectors today. His advertisements offered “Persons wishing for a flat picture can have a likeness without shade or shadow at one quarter price.”

In 1828, Prior married Rosamond Clark Hamblin, sister of artist Sturtevant J. Hamblin, and moved with the Hamblin family to Boston where Prior established himself as one of the most versatile and locally influential painters of his day. He later traveled as far south as Baltimore to continue his profession with new sitters. The works of Prior, Hamblin,  William Kennedy, George Hartwell and E.W. Blake practiced a style of portrait painting that became known as the Prior-Hamblin School of Art.

Prior wrote two religious books and claimed that his visionary beliefs enabled him to paint posthumous portraits “by spirit effect.” His second wife, Hannah Frances Walworth Prior, was a practicing clairvoyant in Boston.

The portraits of William Matthew Prior are in the permanent collections of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Fine Arts Museum San Francisco MH De Young, the Wadsworth Anthenæum Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the National Portrait Gallery and too many more to list here.

References:

Rumford, Beatrix T. American Folk Portraits Paintings and Drawings form the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center. New York Graphic Society, 1981.  176-81.

Sears, Clara Endicott, Some American Primitives:  A Study of New England Faces and Folk Portraits, Kennikat Press, Inc., Port Washington, N.Y., 1941.  31-50.

⁴ Sears, supra at 32-33.

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Mrs. Moses B. Russell (see Clarissa Peters)

William Verstille was born in Boston in 1757, but raised in Wethersfield Connecticut when the family moved their in 1761.  He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, during which time he painted portrait miniatures of some of his officers.  He married Eliza Sheldon in 1780 and moved to East Windsor, Connecticut, where the first five of the Verstille's six children were born.

Verstille worked in Connecticut, Philadelphia, southern Massachusetts, and New York City (where he obviously took notice and styled his work after John Ramage, New York's leading miniaturist).  While in New York, he kept a detailed account book recording his commissions for mourning pieces, hairwork, and jewelry.  While in Salem, Massachusetts, he painted several portraits of sea captains, setting them against a seascape background that often included a ship, a lighthouse, and sometimes a rowboat.

Verstille's brushwork shows a sketchy quality with thin, wavering lines.  Modeling is minimal and effected by a blue or grey hatch.  His sitters are portrayed with large, piercing, dark eyes, thin brows set close to the eyes, a long, somewhat crooked nose, then, slightly mispositioned lips that occasionally curl and the corners, and bristly hair.  Backgrounds are frequently blue or grey, thickly painted and shaded with long, vertical grey hatches.  Backgrounds on later works are often shaded with light blue.  Details of costume are considered charmingly decorative but not rendered with the precision of the master John Ramage (for whom Verstille's work is often mistaken).  The signature "Verstille" is often placed beside the sitter's shoulder, half hidden by shading.

Johnson, Dale T., American Portrait Miniatures In The Manney Collection.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990.  223-25.

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Mary Way was born in 1769 in New London, Connecticut to Ebenezer and Mary Taber Way.  Her family helped settle New London in the mid-seventeenth century.  Mary never married and her letters indicate that she was too independent for the thought of marriage.  It was difficult for a single woman to make a living in the late 18th century, but Mary turned her skills as a seamstress and an artist into an active and successful career as the first professional female artist in America.

Mary combined her skills of sewing and painting to produce "dressed miniatures"--tiny cut-paper profiles with the face and hair painted with watercolor, the clothing cut from various materials--stitched and glued in place, highlights added to the clothing with additional paint, and finally pasted onto a fabric background.  Although Mary was not the first or the last to create dressed miniatures, she was certainly the most successful.  She created these dressed miniatures only for period of 12 to 15 years at the end of the 19th century.  As of 1997, only 36 dressed miniatures that are reasonably attributable to Mary Way had been recorded. 

Although Mary appears to have stopped creating her lovely dressed miniatures after 1800, she continued her profession as a painter of portrait miniatures.  Self-taught and competing against the most accomplished artists in America, Mary Way had an active business in New York City from 1811-1819.  Her advertisements in The Columbian and the New York Evening Post in 1811 stated:

Mary Way, portrait and miniature painted from New-London, Connecticut.  Takes likenesses upon ivory or glass in colors or gold, landscapes or views of country seats, &c &c.  Paintings not approved may be returned without charge at her painting room, No. 95, Greenwich-Street, where specimens of her performance may be seen and the prices made known.  hours of attendance from 11 o'clock till 3.

Mary supplemented her income by teaching painting, embroidery, lace work, and other subjects to young ladies while she was living in both New London and New York.  Mary Way's miniatures on ivory exhibit a skill comparable to the best of American miniatures portraiture on ivory of its time in levels of sophistication and sensitivity to character.  Her work was exhibited at American Academy in 1818.

The facial features of the miniatures that Mary painted on paper or ivory show the same style as those of her dressed miniatures.  Her dressed miniatures were placed on black fabric to emphasis the profile.  She used a dark wash background for her painted miniatures to achieve the same result.  Mary Way's dressed miniatures and painted profiles are exceedingly rare and greatly sought by collectors.

Frank, Robin Jafee, Love and Loss American Portrait and Mourning Miniatures, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2000.  199-204.

MacMullen, Ramsay, Sisters of the Brush Their Family, Art, Life, and Letters 1797-1833, PastTimes Press, New Haven, Conn., 1997.

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The tombstone of Micah Williams in North Brunswick Township, New Jersey, gives his birthdate as 1782 and his death as November 21, 1837.  He married Margaret H. Priestly, daughter of John and Catherine Voorhees Priestly, on December 24, 1806.  Public records show he had six children.  Little else is known about his personal life except it appears that he and his family spent most of their lives in New Brunswick except the years of 1829 to 1833 when it appears that they lived in New York City.

Williams portraits were hailed by his clients, as evidenced by a note of praise published in 1823 in the Paterson Chronicle and Essex and Bergen Advertiser.  After noting that Williams was self-taught the note stated:

we . . . cheerfully express our opinion of his correctness of design and execution, as well worth the patronage of an enlightened public.

Gerard Rutgers noted in his March 19, 1823 diary

this morning my Son Anthony went to Newark, and M. Williams Portrait Painter took my likeness, he began in The Morning and finished by Sundown.

Williams worked mostly in pastels, which according to a descendent, he made himself.  A few known oil portraits by his hand are also known.  His pastel work is acclaimed for its "brilliant colors, stylized figures and hands, bold patterns and its distinctive yet realistic effect, although he tended to use standard poses and costumes for his sitters."  Williams characteristically painted his sitters eyes as almond-shaped and gave them chubby fingers.  He generally applied newspaper to the back of his completed portraits, then attached it to a simple wooden frame and added a second covering of newspaper to the back of the frame.  The majority of his identified work was done between 1818 and 1830 in the vicinity of Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Rumford, Beatrix T. American Folk Portraits Paintings and Drawings form the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center. New York Graphic Society, 1981. 193-95.

Please view the Micah Williams portrait currently in stock on the Portraits page

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