Americana & Folk Art
|
|
Peggy McClard Antiques Americana & Folk Art |
|
This fabulously folky pair of American watercolor
portraits is attributed to Jane Anthony Davis. Most of J.A. Davis's
small portraits are of sitters seated and facing the viewer. Of
the recorded bust length profile portraits, these portraits are
wonderfully similar even though, unlike the others, they have silhouette-like bust
terminations. One silhouette signed by Davis has been found,
showing that she was intimately familiar with silhouette-type bust
terminations.
This pair of watercolor profiles is wonderfully representative of
Davis' work. Specifically, the entire composition of each was
drawn completely in pencil prior to watercolor application; watercolor
is thinly used in a naive style; faces are painted with an opaque
bluish-white watercolor with detailed facial features created from
pencil; the sitters are costumed completely in black with color only
being used to highlight the penciled facial figures; the lines used to
depict the folds of the woman's bonnet (which was reduced in size by the
artist after drawing in a slightly larger bonnet in blue pencil) show a
striking similarity to the irregularity Davis used in depicting the
plaid apron in her portrait of the "Shopkeeper" from the Abby Aldrich
Rockefeller Folk Art Museum's collection; and the portraits are painted
on thin 4" x 5" paper which was favored by Ms. Davis. The 5 1/4" x
6 1/4" black painted frames appear to have some good age on them though I
have had a hard time dating them. The paint of the frames has some
light craquelere but they have definitely been overpainted. The
wood that I can see in the back is oxidized and the glass is early.
The paper of the portraits is thin and fragile. There is a little
staining to the background which you can see in the photos below.
The lower left corner of the man's portrait has a bit of paper loss
(also visible in the photo below). The condition of these
portraits is expected in portraits by J.A. Davis because of the quality
of paper that she used. This is a highly desirable pair worthy of
the most serious American folk art collection. The pair is identified by pencil inscriptions on the cardboard frame backs as Sarah and Jeremiah Lynard of Manchester, Maryland. Manchester, Maryland was founded around 1760 at a crossroads of two important Indian trails; one part of the trail connected the Potomac and Susquehanna rivers and the other ran from Hanover to Baltimore. The town has been described as a harmonious blend of English and German cultures. From the middle 1700’s until nearly the beginning of the 1900’s, the primary languages of the people was German or Pennsylvania Dutch. There is no evidence that Jane Anthony Davis ever worked as an itinerant artist, so it must be assumed that Sarah & Jeremiah Lynard traveled to either Rhode Island or Connecticut where Davis lived. Many of the known sitters of Davis have been found to be relatives of the artist or of her classmates at the Warren Ladies Seminary.1 Perhaps the Lynards were the parents of classmates. Jeremiah's clothing indicates the Lynards' portrait was painted in the late 1830s, a time during which Jane attended the Seminary. Although I could not find genealogical information on a couple named Jeremiah and Sarah Lynard from Maryland, a friend helped me find information about Jeremiah Leonard of Talbot, Maryland who had a daughter named Sarah Louise Leonard. Name spelling often changed over the years. Jeremiah may have spelled his name Lynard and then somewhere along the line, the spelling was changed to Leonard. The Lynard/Leonard family may have passed these portraits down for generations before anyone recorded the names on the back. By then, family history may have been distorted to "remember" the Jeremiah's wife was "Sarah" when in reality, that was the name of his daughter. We can't know whether these portraits might be of Jeremiah and Rebecka Bartlett Leonard, first cousins who married and had six children. However, they married in 1830 and, if these portraits are of Jeremiah and Rebecka, they were likely painted as their wedding portraits. I will provide the genealogy information I have to the buyer, however accurate it may be. (#4269) $2250/pair Please see the Folk Portrait Artists page for more information about J.A. Davis |
|
|
|
Send mail to
peggy@peggymcclard.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2007 Peggy McClard Antiques
