A fine example of an 1830s New York coming of age portrait, by Samuel Waldo (1783 – 1861) & William Jewitt (1792 – 1874), of Hester Ann Wilkins, later Mrs Allen Bowie Davis, (USA, 1809 -1888), in the original watergilt frame. Signed, titled & dated 1830 verso.
105cm x 86cm overall.
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The remarkable duo of Waldo & Jewitt painted the bonton of American society, working in New York City from 1818 – 1854.
Samuel Waldo was originally from Connecticut. From 1806 – 1809 he studied under Benjamin West & John Singleton Copley in London, exhibiting at the Royal Academy. In 1812, he was approached by William Jewitt, also of Connecticut, wishing to become an apprentice. The flourishing business partnership lasted from 1818 -1854. Their work is represented in The Metropolitan New York, Los Angles County Museum of Art, Smithsonian & all major U.S museums.
The sitter Hester Wilkins Davis, was to live a long life, in Baltimore, Maryland, a keen diarist, writing from the 1830s to the 1870s. Her diaries, providing important female understandings of the American Civil War, are held in the Maryland Centre for History & Culture.