| About the Artists Rufus Hathaway
Rufus Hathaway (1770-1822) was only twenty years old when he painted "Lady with her
Pets (Molly Wales Fobes)", one of the best-known portraits by an American country
painter. There is no record of Hathaway having had any artistic training and his work
shows very little stylistic development over time. Nonetheless, his oeuvre is memorable
for its charm, a bold use of color, and mastery of two-dimensional design. Paintings by
Hathaway are rare after 1795, when he forsook this occupation to become a doctor. In
"Lady with her Pets" -- Hathaway's earliest known work -- the attitude of the
sitter, her herisson (or hedgehog-style coiffure), and the almost emblematic arrangement
of her pets mimic contemporary French trends in fashion and portraiture, which Hathaway
could have known through prints.
Click on the image below to go to a Rufus Hathaway painting.
Edward Hicks
Orphaned at a very early age, Edward Hicks (1780-1849) was taken in by a family that
raised him in the Quaker tradition. He was apprenticed to a coach maker and showed an
early aptitude for painting, which led to employment as a painter of decorations on
coaches and of street, shop, and tavern signs. Upon being accepted as a Quaker preacher --
contemporary accounts note his extraordinary gifts in this regard -- he felt compelled to
give up these lucrative and worldly pursuits. He tried farming, but his debts mounted, his
health declined, and he still had a family to support. Hicks resolved this dilemma by
returning to painting, but focused solely on subject matter of a religious nature. Hicks's
1825 painting of "The Falls of Niagara" shows the cataract from the Canadian
side, along with the moose, beaver, rattlesnake, and eagle that have traditionally been
used as emblems of North America. Inscribed around the border is an excerpt from Alexander
Wilson's poem, "The Foresters." The painting, a sort of visual sermon, can be
interpreted as a commemoration of Hicks's missionary work among Native American tribes in
upstate New York.
Click on the image below to go to a Edward Hicks painting.
Joshua Johnson
Joshua Johnson (ca. 1762/63- ca. 1824) was the earliest African-American painter in the
United States with a recognized body of work. It has long been assumed that Johnson (whose
name is sometimes spelled Johnston) was brought to Baltimore in the 1790s as a slave for a
family that was related to Charles Willson Peale. In fact, Johnson was not a Peale
protegé, but an independent artist, the free son of a white man and a black slave. In
1798 he advertised himself in a Baltimore newspaper as "a self-taught genius"
who had "experienced many insuperable obstacles in the pursuit of his studies."
Johnson was a prolific and successful painter, whose work is characterized by meticulous
delineations of costume, symmetrical compositions, frontal poses, and bright, strong
colors. This can be seen in the portrait of Edward and Sarah Rutter, a precisely painted
and highly engaging double portrait.
Ammi Phillips
Ammi Phillips (1788-1865) was an itinerant portrait painter who settled in one community
and then another along the Massachusetts-Connecticut border before moving on in search of
commissions. In a career that spanned many years and underwent several stages of evolution
and response to the influence of various artists, Phillips facilitated his work (by
developing a formulaic approach to portraiture) at the same time that he personalized it
(by imaginatively individualizing each one). The portrait of "Mrs. Mayer and
Daughter" shows Phillips's combination of radically simple, elegant outlines with an
assured coloristic refinement that borders on the urbane.
Click on the image below to go to an Ammi Phillips painting.
Works of art by nearly five dozen other named artists, as well as numerous pieces by
unidentified makers, are also on view. Highlights include 27 scenes of city life by the
tinsmith William P. Chappel (ca. 1800-1880), a work commemorating the first naval battle
in the War of 1812 by Thomas Chambers (1808-after 1866), two religious paintings based on
Biblical scenes and a portrait by Erastus Salisbury Field (1805-1900), a patriotic image
of George Washington by Frederick Kemmelmeyer (ca. 1755-1821), and a watercolor portrait
that was executed jointly by Ruth Whittier Shute (1803-?), who drew the likeness, and her
husband Samuel Addison Shute (1803-1836), who painted it in.
The exhibition is being organized by Carrie Rebora Barratt, Associate Curator of American
Paintings and Sculpture and Manager of The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American
Art.
More about the Exhibition Selected Works Back
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