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This pair of Ellsworth portraits has descended through the family of the sitters until 2009 (through Olive to her great-granddaughter).  They are Olive Jane Avery Kingsley and her husband Wareham Kingsley.  According to the very large and extensive genealogical chart provided by the family and the inscription on the back of the portraits, Wareham Kingsley (1799-1862) married Olive Avery (1795-1858) on April 28, 1814.  They had five children.  My independant research shows that both Wareham and Olive lived from cradle to grave in Montgomery, Hampden Co., Massachusetts.  The family genealogical tree shows that the first American member of the Kingsley family, John Kingsley, immigrated to America in 1635.  John Kingsley, Wareham's great-great-great grandfather, is listed as a friend of Richard Mather and one of seven men who signed the covenant to form a Congregational Church in Dorchester on August 23, 1636.  Independent research shows that Olive Avery's family immigrated to America somewhere between 1620 and 1669.

Wareham holds an open book with a blue-green binding.  He wears a black coat and black tie.  Olive holds a similar book and wears a blue-black dress with blue and lavender checks, white collar edged in lace and a frilled, sheer white lace indoor cap.  Each portrait is signed "J.S.E. Ptr."  This wonderful pair of American folk portraits is presented in a 1/2" wide period mahogany veneer frame which is of the style that Ellsworth often used.  The exhibit catalog in which they appear on pages 62-62 (nos. A36 & A37 of the exhibit) states that they are in the original frame.  I have my doubts about that statement because the frame has been put together with round nails which have been filled in and the fill-in colored to match the wood.  However, I can still see the roundness of the nails.  Also, the mitered corners of the frame are too "perfect" for 19th century construction.  It appears to me as though someone appropriately placed this pair in a period frame of the same type that Ellsworth used.  Also, the paper of Olive's portrait has yellowed a bit more than Wareham's portrait which leads me to believe that they once resided in separate frames and Olive got a little more UV light than Wareham.  We know that Ellsworth also painted at least one other portrait of their daughter Olive Jane Kingsley so it is quite possible that they had the entire family painted and had them all framed separately for a group collection.  These are small apologies if they are apologies at all.  The simple fact is that this is a fantastic pair of folk paintings signed by a well-documented and well-collected American artist of known sitters, exhibited, published and with documented genealogy.  What more could you ask for?

I have asked Colonial Williamsburg for a copy of their file on these portraits from when they were logged in for the exhibit.  Any information I receive from them will also be included with the portraits, the exhibit catalog, the family's 36" x 25" family tree, my own genealogical research and a short biography of the artist.

(#4619)     Sold

Provenance:  ex-Mrs. Gerald Kranz (great-granddaughter of this couple's daughter Olive Jane Kingsley)

Exhibited:  "The Paintings of James Sanford Ellsworth, Itinerant Folk Artist 1802-1873", Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection, October 13 - December 1, 1974

Published:  Mitchell, Lucy B., The Paintings of James S. Ellsworth, Itinerant Folk Artist 1802-1873, Exhibition Catalog.  The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation 1974.

Please see the Folk Portrait Artists page for more information about James Sanford Ellsworth.

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