Artists

Robert Frederick Blum was a major figure painter and illustrator who emerged from the active artistic milieu of mid-century Cincinnati, where he was born. From his studies in Cincinnati, Blum traveled to Philadelphia and studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1876-1877). Blum and many of his contemporaries greatly admired the...

No information on the artist has been located. The artist's name and active date of 1777 come from the inscription on the National Gallery's painting Basket of Fruit with Parrot (1980.62.20). While it is possible that this is an English painting, it probably was produced in America by an artist copying a European still life, or more likely, a...

Nothing is known about English portrait painter Joseph Blackburn prior to his presence on Bermuda in 1752. During an extended stay on the island he painted about twenty-five portraits, including those of members of the Jones, Tucker and Harvey families. His compositions show that he was familiar with the work of the leading London portrait painters...

Mary Roberts (died 1761) was an American miniaturist active in Charleston, South Carolina in the 1740s and 1750s. One of the earliest American miniaturists, and the first woman recorded as working in the medium in the American colonies,[1] she is also believed to have painted the first watercolor-on-ivory miniature in the...

Fisher is known to have lived in Portland, ME.  He worked at Cumberland County Power and Light (along with Frederick J. Ilsey of the Brushians group).  Although not a member of the Brushians group of Portland, ME, his paintings are similar to theirs in size, style, and subject matter.

In 1980 Mary Black proposed that Nehemiah Partridge may be the anonymous artist recognized variously by the appellations "Schuyler Limner" and "Aetatis Suae Limner". Nehemiah Partridge, one of four members of his family known to have borne this name, was one of five children of Col. William Partridge (c. 1652-1728) and Mary Brown, who were married...

John Smybert (or Smibert) (1688–1751), Scottish American artist, was born in Edinburgh and died in Boston, Massachusetts. Smibert began drawing while apprenticed as a painter and plasterer, on moving to London he worked as a painter of coach carriages and a copyist. He studied under Sir James Thornhill at his academy, then travelled to Edinburgh...

Peter Pelham (ca. 1695[1] – December 1751), American limner and engraver, was born in England, a son of a man named "gentleman" in his will. His father, who died in Chichester, Sussex, in 1756, is revealed in letters to his son in America as a man of some property.[2] London Pelham was one of several London artists who learned the then new...

Joseph Badger (ca.1707–1765) was a portrait artist in Boston, Massachusetts in the 18th-century. He painted some 80 portraits of merchants, businessmen, clergy, and other notables, and their wives and children. Biography Badger was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, to tailor Stephen Badger and Mercy Kettell. In 1731 he married Katharine Felch;...

Jeremiah Theus (sometimes Jeremiah Theüs[note 1]) (April 5, 1716 – May 17, 1774) was a Swiss-born American painter, primarily of portraits. He was active mainly around Charleston, South Carolina, in which city he remained almost without competition for the bulk of his career.[1] Early life and career Theus was born in the city of Chur, in the...

William Williams (1727 – 27 April 1791)[1] was an English/American painter. He was born in Bristol, England. His family is believed to have originated in Caerphilly, Wales just across the Severn River from Bristol. He began living in Philadelphia around 1747 after time at sea. In Philadelphia he was instrumental in building America's first...

John Hesselius (1728–1778) was a portraitist who worked mostly in Virginia and Maryland. He was the son of the Swedish-born portraitist Gustavus Hesselius. Background John Hesselius was most likely born in Philadelphia, where his father owned a house to satisfy clients. Claims that he was born in Prince Georges County, Maryland are unfounded,...

John Durand's birth and death dates are unknown, and only a few of his portraits are signed and dated. The sketchy chronology of his life is based on these few signed works, as well as on account book entries and information about his sitters. Scholars place his first activity in Virginia in 1765, but by 1766 Durand was in New York City. In that year...

Matthew Pratt was born in Philadelphia in 1734. He served an apprenticeship with his uncle James Claypoole, a limner and painter, from 1749 to 1755. Pratt opened a similar business which he interrupted with a brief speculative trading voyage to Jamaica. When he returned to Philadelphia he began to paint portraits, at which he proved very...

Henry Benbridge born October 1743 [1] died February 1812), early American portrait painter, was born in Philadelphia, the only child of James and Mary (Clark) Benbridge. When he was seven years old, his mother, who had been left a widow, was married to Thomas Gordon, a wealthy Scot. The boy's artistic talent was encouraged. He made decorative...

James Peale (1749 – May 24, 1831) was an American painter, best known for his miniature and still life paintings, and a younger brother of noted painter Charles Willson Peale. Peale was born in Chestertown, Maryland, the second child, after Charles, of Charles Peale (1709–1750) and Margaret Triggs (1709–1791). His father died when he was an...

Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller (February 18, 1751 — October 5, 1811) was a Swedish painter whose notable works include Danaë receiving Jupiter in a Shower of Gold. Wertmüller was born in Stockholm and studied art at home before moving to Paris in 1772 to study under his cousin Alexander Roslin and French painter Joseph-Marie Vien.[1] On July 30,...

Michele Felice Cornè, considered to be Salem, Massachusetts’ most versatile early nineteenth century artist, arrived in America from Naples, Italy in 1800. Cornè worked and lived in Salem from 1800-06 when he moved to Boston. During his Boston tenure (1807-22) the artist was noted for painting portraits of Boston ships and naval battles of the...

Joseph Steward (1753–1822) was a prominent American artist. Early years Joseph Steward was born on July 6, 1753. He was the son of Joseph and Jane (Wilson) Steward of Upton, Massachusetts. Stewart went to Dartmouth College, graduating in 1780. Joseph Steward continued his studies under the guidance of Reverend Doctor Levi Hart of Preston,...

Census records indicate that Frederick Kemmelmeyer was more than forty-five years old in 1800, and therefore born sometime prior to 1755, but no record of his birth has been found. A Frederick Kimmelmeiger listed in naturalization papers issued at Annapolis, Maryland, on 8 October 1788 is presumed to be the artist. He first advertised in the...

Gilbert Charles Stuart (born Stewart) (December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island. Gilbert Stuart is widely considered to be one of America's foremost portraitists.[2] His best known work, the unfinished portrait of George Washington that is sometimes referred to as The Athenaeum, was begun in 1796 and never...

ROBERTSON, ARCHIBALD (1765–1835), miniature-painter, born at Monymusk in Scotland on 8 May 1765, was eldest son of William Robertson of Drumnahoy, near Aberdeen, and Jean Ross, his wife; Andrew Robertson [q. v.] was his brother. He was educated at Aberdeen, and received his first instruction in drawing from a deaf-and-dumb artist. In 1786 he...

The first historian of the American stage, William Dunlap was a passionate lover of the arts, a gifted painter, a tireless chronicler of his day and a writer of considerable charm. He wrote or adapted more than sixty plays. While subsequent scholarship has found a considerable number of innacuracies in his historical work, his first hand account of...

Ezra Ames (May 5, 1768 – February 23, 1836) was a popular portrait painter in Albany, New York during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. More than 700 portraits have been attributed to him. He was born in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1768. He moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1790, and married Zipporah Wood in 1794. Some time later he moved...

William M.S. Doyle was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1769. His father was a British soldier, but Doyle seems to have lived and worked his entire life in Boston. Doyle was a silhouettist, artist of portraits of both full-size and miniature. He worked in silhouette cutting, watercolor, oil and pastel. His silhouettes were beautifully rendered in...

Henry Sargent (baptized November 25, 1770 — February 21, 1845), American painter and military man, was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He was one of seven children born to Daniel and Mary (Turner) Sargent. He was the brother of author Lucius Manlius Sargent, a nephew of American Revolutionary War soldier Paul Dudley Sargent,[1] and a...

John Hill was born in London in 1770, and was apprenticed as a youth to an engraver in that city. He became interested in the process of aquatinting, a technique wherein a metal plate is etched several times in order to create tonal gradations, resulting in a print that is easier to hand-color due to the variety of subtle tones produced. Hill began...

The family records that William John Thomson had one son, William Thomas Thomson, who had a son Spencer Campbell Thomson, but there the trail ends. Any leads about the early Thomson family history would be welcomed by the Thomson family. William John Thomson was originally taken to London where he learned to paint and exhibited at the Royal...