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Viewing Item... 555. DATED 1790 PORTRAIT OF RACHEL HUBBARD OF CONNECTICUT,      oils on canvas. A wonderful portrait of young girl wearing a pink dress and sitting in a garden, inscribed in the upper left AE 9 1790. In a black-painted frame; 28.25" x 23.5" (w/o frame), 32" x 27.25" (w/frame). Having been saved from the trash, literally, in the 1950s, the portraits have been in the Chappell family of Connecticut since the early 20th century. A surviving label (found on verso during conservation) indicates that the portraits were loaned to the Lyman Allyn Museum (New London, Connecticut) in 1946. The museum’s records indicate that they were exhibited in their Tercentenary Exhibition (May through September 1946) and the girls are identified as Eleanor and Rachel Hubbard. Little could be discovered about Eleanor and Rachel. Their parents were Timothy Hubbard (1750-1824) and Sarah Gillette Hubbard (1753-1811), both of Windsor. The couple had 10 children: 1. Sarah (1773-1796) At the time of the Tercentenary Exhibition, the owner was George S. Chappell of Bantam, Connecticut, the maternal grandfather of the current owner. Correspondence in the museum’s file indicates that the portraits hung in the Saltonstall-Chappell House in New London until it was closed down and everything was moved to another family home at Federal and Huntington Streets, also in New London. The portraits remained there until George and his wife, Amy Beard Chappell, moved them to Ocean Avenue in 1918. The author of the letter, Tom Chappell (grandson of George and Amy), also indicates that the portraits descended in his grandmother’s family, and not the Chappell family. Like the girls, little could be found about Amy Beard, other than her marriage to George in 1905, or her family. However, the Chappells, Beards, and Hubbards were prominent early families of Connecticut. Research in those families reveals much crossover with other prominent families such as the Saltonstalls, Huntingtons, Sages, Arnolds, and Loomises. A letter between Amy Beard Chappell (shortly after George’s death in 1947) and the executive secretary of the Lyman Allyn, Dwight C. Lyman, suggests Richard Jennys as the artist of the portraits, based on other portraits in the Tercentenary Exhibition and the Eighty Eminent Painters of Connecticut exhibit in 1947. These portraits also display some similarities to both the Sherman Limner (active 1785-1790) of Connecticut. The awkward arrangement of Eleanor’s arms is comparable to the arrangement of the arms in the portrait of Maria Sherman (see Christie’s, New York, Sale 1617, January 20-21, 2006, lot 364). Moreover, the dresses on Maria Sherman and on both Eleanor and Rachel are all executed in a naïve manner, in that they do not conform to the girls’ bodies, but instead are either awkwardly covered by an arm or end abruptly. However, the Denison Limner (fl. 1790-1810) seems a more likely candidate. The stiff postures and awkward arms and hands are similar to those in other portraits by the Denison Limner, as are the well-defined, three-dimensional rendering of the faces. Further, the depiction of the hands in the girl in the pink dress resembles the hands in the portrait of Captain Elisha Denison in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Two other plausible connections may be found between the work of the Denison Limner and the portraits offered here. Firstly, the chair; in the Denison family portraits, six of the seven are seated in country Chippendale side chairs, as is Eleanor Hubbard. Secondly, the unusual inscription on the front of the canvases may relate to the “labeling” of the portrait of Captain Denison’s son, Elisha. There are some scholars who have asserted that Joseph Steward (1753-1822) and the Denison Limner are one and the same. Indeed, parallels between the work of Steward and the Denison Limner, as well as the portraits offered here, exist. However, it is quite possible that the portraits of Eleanor and Rachel Hubbard are by another, as-yet unidentified artist. References: Cowan’s gratefully acknowledges Kelley Stroup of the Lyman Allyn Museum, Katherine Hunt of the Connecticut Historical Society, and Hollie Davis of the Boone County, Kentucky Public Library for their assistance in preparing this catalog entry. Conserved (report available), relined with scattered, minor inpainting; repaired tear. (EST $30000-$50000) |
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  "Un Tournant de la Scarpe" by J.B.C. Corot Oil on canvas, signed lower left. A lush landscape with a small stream... |
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