Jonathan Wharff

Date1784

DimensionsSight: 23 7/16 × 16 3/8 in. (59.5 × 41.6 cm)

Object numberN0280.1961

Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark

Photograph by Richard Walker

Label TextThese paintings are two of four known portraits by this unidentified artist. Stylistically related, all of the portraits are composed within an oval with each sitter holding a personalized object. The style of the inscriptions identifying the sitters' initials, age, and the date of the paintings have led to speculation that the artist was a sign painter. These portraits descended in the family until they were separated probably in the early 20th century. Jonathan Wharf's portrait was found in Maine in 1950 and given to the museum in 1961. When descendents gave the portrait of Priscilla Wharf to the museum in 1990, the siblings were reunited.
Exhibition History“Folk Art from the Collection of the New York State Historical Association,” Museum of American Folk Art, NY, January 11, 2000 – February 18, 2000.

“American Folk Art: Collection from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, January 25, 2001 – March 24, 2001.

“Art of the Everyman: American Folk Art from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT, May 28, 2014 – September 29, 2014.
BibliographyPaul S. D'Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans, Folk Art's Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association, (Cooperstown, NYSHA 1987), pp.167-169, ill. no. 106, p. 109.

Louis C. Jones and Agnes Halsey, New-Found Folk Art of the Young Republic (exh. cat., Cooperstown, NY, NYSHA, 1960), p. 13, n0. 1, ill. 1.

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