Samuel Nelson (1792-1873)

Date1829

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsSight: 38 1/2 × 33 1/4 in. (97.8 × 84.5 cm)

Object numberN0339.1955

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

Photograph by Richard Walker

Label TextSamuel F.B. Morse painted Samuel Nelson (1792-1873) and his wife Catherine Ann Russell Nelson (1798-1875) in the late 1820s when Morse spent the summer in Cherry Valley, New York, at the invitation of his cousin, James Otis Morse. A leading figure in Cooperstown, Samuel Nelson had a long, successful law career. He was Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court and later served as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. His summer law office is now located at The Farmers' Museum (the sister museum to Fenimore Art Museum) in Cooperstown. Best remembered as the inventor of the Morse code and the telegraph, Morse originally intended to be an artist. He studied with Benjamin West in London and aspired to be a history painter. However, finding that the majority of his commissions were for portraiture, he stopped painting in 1837.
Exhibition History“The River: People and Places,” New York State Fair, The American Federation of Arts, New York, NY, April 22 – October 31, 1964, no cat.

“175th Anniversary Exhibition: Samuel Finley Breese Morse,” Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC, March 6, 1966 - Apr. 10, 1966.

“Samuel F. B. Morse: A Retrospective,” Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York, NY, September 14, 1982 – October 23, 1982.

“American Treasures from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL, February 20 – April 11, 2004.

“Thomas Cole to Grandma Moses: American Masters,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY, March 30 – June 2, 2013.

On View

Not on view