Laura Hall

Date1808

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsSight: 78 1/2 × 42 1/2 in. (199.4 × 108 cm)

Object numberN0010.1952

Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of John G. Kasson

Photograph by Richard Walker

Label TextJames Brown's portraits have long been held in high esteem despite the lack of any concrete biographical information about his life. Until recently the artist was identified only as J. Brown. He painted a handful of Massachusetts subjects between 1806-1808 and depicted his sitters with clear, angular facial features that convey a strong sense of individuality and character. The artist also paid great attention to clothing details and accessories in his otherwise simple compositions. At the time this portrait was painted, Laura Hall lived with her parents, who were tavern-keepers, in Cheshire, Massachusetts. This unusual life-size portrait was rendered shortly before her 21st birthday. Two years later she married Ambrose Kasson and they eventually settled in Deerfield, New York, where they raised seven children.
Exhibition History“Rediscovered Painters of Upstate New York,” New York Historical Society, NY, February 1, 1959 – February 28, 1959; Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, Syracuse, NY, January 4, 1959 – January 25, 1959; Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, NY, November 30, 1958 – December 21, 1958; Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY, October 30, 1958 – November 20, 1958; Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY, September 26, 1958 – October 21, 1958; New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, NY, June 14, 1958 – September 15, 1958.

“Ammie Phillips,” American Folk Art Museum, NY, September 28, 1965 – February 1, 1966.

“Folk Art from Cooperstown,” Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY, March 29, 1966 – June 5, 1966.

“Between the Rivers: Itinerant Painters from the Connecticut to the Hudson,” Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY, January 1, 1991 – March 31, 1991; MFA Boston, MA, September 9, 1990 – November 30, 1990; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, April 7, 1990 – July 22, 1990.

“Folk Art from the Collection of the New York State Historical Association,” Museum of American Folk Art, NY, January 11, 2000 – February 18, 2000.

“Art of the Everyman: American Folk Art from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT, May 28, 2014 – September 29, 2014.
ProvenanceJohn G. Kasson, Utica, New York (descendant of the sitter)
BibliographyJean Lipman and Mary Black, “American Folk Painting,” (New York” 1966), p.22-23, illus. as fig. 45.

Agnes Halsey Jones, Rediscovered Painters of Upstate New York, 1700-1875, (Utica, NY: Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, 1958), p.29, illus. as no.23.

Paul S. D’Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans, Folk Art’s Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association (Cooperstown, NY, 1987), p.50-51, illus. as no.21, p.51.

Colleen Cowles Heslip, Between the Rivers; Itinerant Painters from the Connecticut to the Hudson (Williamstown, MA: Clark Art Institute, 1990), p.51.

Elizabeth V. Warren, “The Mystery of J. Brown,” in Folk Art (Museum of American Folk Art, 1998), p. 54-63, illus. p.59.

On View

On view