Rufus Hathaway

Lady with Her Pets, 1790, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rufus Hathaway (1770 - 1822) was an American physician and folk art painter. He lived in southern Massachusetts, where he painted numerous portraits between 1790 and 1795.[1] He later studied medicine and established himself as a doctor at Duxbury.[2]

Hathway was born in Freetown, Massachusetts, and was the eldest of six children born to Asa Hathaway and Mary Phillips;[1] his father and grandfather were ship carpenters.[3] The family moved several times, settling in Bristol, Rhode Island in the mid-1780s.[2] The source of Hathaway's artistic training is unknown, though it is believed he may have worked as a decorative artist or apprentice ship-carver; as a painter he appears to have been self-taught.[2] He is known to have been active in the vicinity of Taunton, Massachusetts in 1790.[4] Hathaway arrived in Duxbury in 1791, and began painting portraits of members of locally prominent families. In 1795 he married Judith Winslow, the daughter of a locally important merchant. He took up medicine at this time, possibly at the behest of his new wife's family,[4] studying with Dr. Isaac Winslow of Marshfield.[5] He seems to have abandoned painting, as very few works by his hand are known after the time of his marriage,[1] although paintings dating to as late as 1808 are known.[4] Hathaway had twelve children by Judith; at one time the only physician in Duxbury,[5] he was highly respected in the field, and was elected Honorary Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society shortly before his death.[1] One of his granddaughters was the abolitionist and suffragist Judith Winsor Smith,[6] and surgeon Frederick Winsor was a great-nephew.[7]

Thirty-three portraits by Hathaway are known to exist, dating almost exclusively to the years between 1790 and 1795;[1] all are of relatives and friends.[8] He also painted landscapes, portrait miniatures, and overmantels.[4] [2][2] One genre painting, the Welch Curate of about 1800, is known; it was adapted from an English mezzotint.[8] Furthermore, he is known to have created at least one wood carving, a figure of an eagle used to crown a temporary arch constructed to inaugurate a new bridge over the Bluefish River,[4] and he carved the frames to some of his paintings.[8]

Hathaway was remembered as a physician on his epitaph, which he may have composed himself.[4]

A bill of sale for six portraits of the Weston family exists, dating to 1793; it indicates that the paintings cost six pounds, and that Hathaway charged a further three shillings for the frame on the portrait of Ezra Weston.[9] In 2006, a pair of portraits, of Josiah Dean III and his wife, Sarah, were sold at Sotheby's, fetching $380,000 for the pair.[10]

Selected works

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Vose Galleries - Rufus Hathaway". vosegalleries.com. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Rufus Hathaway". oxfordreference.com. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  3. ↑ 'Primitive' artist's work offers glimpse of past. Donna MacLearn, The Patriot-Ledger, June 17, 1987.. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Gerard C. Wertkin (2 August 2004). Encyclopedia of American Folk Art. Routledge. pp. 250–. ISBN 978-1-135-95615-8.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Albert TenEyck Gardner, Stuart P. Feld. American Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1, Painters Born by 1815. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 116–. GGKEY:FFP93GZGZGS.
  6. ↑ "Judith Winsor Smith". drewarchives.org. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  7. ↑ "Winsor, Frederick". Drew Archival Library. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Joan M. Marter (2011). The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art. Oxford University Press. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-0-19-533579-8.
  9. ↑ Nina F. Little (1 September 1984). Little by Little: Six Decades of Collecting American Decorative Arts. E.P. Dutton. ISBN 978-0-525-24265-9.
  10. ↑ "Josiah Dean III and his wife, Sarah by Rufus Hathaway - Blouin Art Sales Index". artinfo.com. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  11. ↑ "Rufus Hathaway - Lady with Her Pets (Molly Wales Fobes) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art". metmuseum.org. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  12. ↑ "*Rufus Hathaway (1770-1822)". Invaluable.com. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  13. ↑ "Sylvia Church Weston Sampson". yale.edu. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  14. ↑ New York Media, LLC (25 July 1988). New York Magazine. New York Media, LLC. pp. 43–. ISSN 00287369.
  15. ↑ "Portrait of Seth Winsor". risdmuseum.org. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  16. ↑ "Collection - American Folk Art Museum". folkartmuseum.org. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  17. ↑ Portrait of Ezra Weston at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  18. ↑ Portrait of Jerusha Bradford Weston at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  19. ↑ Portrait of Maria Weston at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Retrieved 7 February 2015.