Image scanned/or photographed from transparency and color corrected by Pat Cagney.

Mrs. Nathaniel Paine and Child

Attribution John Brewster (American, 1766-1854)

CultureAmerican

Dateca. 1800

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 29 1/2 x 25 3/4 in. (74.9 x 65.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 33 3/4 x 30 in. (85.7 x 76.2 cm)

Credit LineGift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch

Object number80.181.2

Not on view

DescriptionThis is an oval oil on canvas portrait painting of a mother holding a child in her lap. The woman is wearing a dress with lace hems and a red rose painted on her bodice. The girl is wearing a similiar dress and is holding a yellow ball in her right hand.

Label TextAttributed to John Brewster, Jr. American, 1766–1854 Mrs. Nathaniel Paine and Child, ca. 1800 Oil on canvas In 1802, portraitist John Brewster advertised in the Newburyport Herald that clients “will be pleased with the striking likeness…and with the reasonableness of his prices.” Deaf and mute from birth, Brewster traveled throughout New England in the early 1800s and earned a steady living as a painter. When America’s first school for the deaf opened in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1817, the 51-year-old artist could afford to enroll as a self-supporting pupil. The precise and controlled execution of this portrait matches many of Brewster’s signed works. Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch 80.181.2 ProvenanceNew York; Argosy Gallery, New York, NY, October 27, 1952; On loan to National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 1953-1980; Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch to The Chrysler Museum, 1980. Exhibition History"John Brewster, Jr., 1766-1854, Deaf-Mute Portrait Painter of Connecticut and Maine," Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Conn., November 6 - December 31, 1960; Colby College (Bixler Art and Music Center), January 15 - February 25, 1961. "Democratic Designs: American Folk Paintings from the Chrysler Museum," Willoughby-Baylor House, Norfolk, VA, August 16, 2014 - April 5, 2015.Published ReferencesNina Fletcher Little, "John Brewster, Jr., 1766-1854, Deaf-Mute Portrait Painter of Connecticut and Maine," _Connecticut Historical Society Bulletin_ XXV (October 1960): 101, 108, 123, no. 22.