As in Figures 1 and 2, Curtis's adult subjects are usually dressed in decorative, elegant clothes, but not of the highest style, befitting the upper middle class of professional and business people living in the northeastern United States in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. The artist paid attention to depicting pleats, especially in the clothing of his younger subjects. Men's suits and vests have notched lapels, and many of the women wear dresses with the leg-of-mutton sleeves typical of the period from 1825 to 1835. The women's clothes are further enhanced by shawls and bonnets (often decorated in lace), also favored in that period, and many hold kerchiefs in their hands. The clothes of the adult subjects are rendered in thin paint usually in white, gray, or black. The background tends to be a uniform somber color, usually brown, gray, or grayish green. On rare occasions drapery is present.
Jewelry figures prominently in Curtis's portraits, and he took particular care in depicting women's earrings, brooches, rings, and necklaces—of jet, pearls, or coral—as well as men's cravat pins and gold watch chains. Some rings are painted with dots to simulate luminescence. Books, a favorite prop used by folk painters to hide hands (a notoriously difficult part of the body to paint well), are also present in many of the paintings, though different objects such as rifles, musical instruments (see Fig. 3), flowers, and drinking cups also appear.
In contrast to his adult subjects, Curtis usually painted children wearing brightly colored clothing, usually red or green (see Fig. 4). The children's necks are often foreshortened, or sometimes they appear to have no necks at all. That the artist enjoyed painting young subjects is evident in his sensitive depictions of the children of Dr. Abiather Gardner (b. 1810) and Sarah Thompson Gardner (Fig. 5) originally from Pownal, Bennington County, Vermont. Like their mother, Theodore Adolphus (Fig. 6) and an unidentified child (Fig. 7) are depicted in half-length in slightly forward-leaning poses. The outlines of the faces, noses, and eyebrows are boldly emphasized, and both children have foreshortened necks. Theodore wears finery including an Eton collar, a cravat, and a light brown waistcoat. Both children are rendered with sympathy but without sentiment.
Abiather Gardner, whose portrait is either lost or was never painted, was a physician and member of a prominent Pownal family. One of his direct ancestors was a founder of the town.12 He married Sarah (Sally) Thompson, also of Pownal, on May 3, 1829.13 The 1840 United States census lists him as a head of household in Mexico, Oswego County, New York. It was there that the three paintings of the Gardner family surfaced at the end of the twentieth century, and were presumably painted.14
In total we can now confidently link some fifty paintings to a previously unidentified artist—Ralph D. Curtis (see checklist here). His work, which spanned the second quarter of the nineteenth century, consists of portraits of families, mostly from upper New York State and a few from the Midwest. His style, although distinctive, fits into the general category of folk painters of that period.
1 I am grateful to Peter Warwick for initially finding Ralph D. Curtis in his genealogical research. I am indebted to him as well as to Bobbi Terkowitz and Vincent DeCicco for research on this artist as well as on some of the unidentified sitters. A few of the known portraits have been identified as originating in New England, but the provenances in these cases are very unreliable. 2 Rose Mary Goodwin, A Family Named Curtis: Descendants of Thomas Curtis of Wethersfield, Ct., 1598-1982 (R. M Goodwin, Sunland, Calif., 1983). 3 Michael A. Leeson with Damon Clarke, History of Saginaw County, Michigan, (Chicago, 1881), p. 821. 4 Oswego Palladium, July 9, 1834, p. 3. 5 Ibid., October 15, 1834, p. 2. Most genealogical records agree with this date and the bride's first name. However, a book of records from Saint James' Church gives the wedding date as October 10, 1834, and spells the bride's first name Alice. 6 Oswego Commercial Herald, September 6, 1837, p. 3. 7 Leeson, History of Saginaw County, Michigan, p. 821. 8 Ibid. 9 Record for Ralph D. Curtis, Michigan Land Office Records, at www.ancestry.com. 10 Leeson, History of Saginaw County, Michigan, p. 821. 11 Curtis painted one portrait on canvas. It depicts an elderly woman with rosy cheeks holding a kerchief and dates to about 1830-1840 (whereabouts unknown). 12 See Joseph Parks, Pownal: A Vermont Town's Two Hundred Years and More (Pownal Bicentennial Committee, Pownal, Vt., 1977). 13 Marriages in Pownal, Vt. to 1850, comp. Elmer I. Shepard, Berkshire Genealogical Notes, no. 3 (Williamstown, Mass., 1941). 14 Personal communication with Dr. Ralph Katz.
J. E. JELINEK is a physician and folk art collector based in New York.
Pickle Dish, American China Manufactory (Bonnin and Morris), Philadelphia, 1771-72. Soft-paste porcelain with lead glaze; height 4 3/16, width 4 1/2
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