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BibliographyEye of the Collector: Works from the Lipman Collection of American Art (exh. cat. Arizona State University Art Museum, 1999).
Jean Lipman, Robert Bishop, Elizabeth V. Warren, and Sharon L. Eisenstate, Five Star Folk Art: One Hundred American Masterpieces (New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the Museum of American Folk Art, 1990).
Robert Doty, By Good Hands: New Hampshire Folk Art (exh. cat. University Press of New England, 1989).
Paul S. D’Ambrosio and Charlotte Emas Folk Art’s Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association (New York State Historical Association, 1987), pp. 58-64, 208.
Gail and Norbert H. Savage and Esther Sparks, Three New England Watercolor Painters (exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1974), pp.22-41.
Attributed to
Joseph H. Davis
(active 1832 - 1837)
Separate Tables
Datec. 1835
DimensionsSight: 11 3/4 × 17 3/4 in. (29.8 × 45.1 cm)
Object numberN0290.1961
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextDavis's clientele included military officers, farmers, lawyers, schoolmasters and clergymen. In this group portrait of a handsome couple and their two children, Davis placed many refinements of a middle-class society on the tables, including a top hat, two books, a vase of flowers, a quill pen with inkstand and writing paper. Although he sought to record true likenesses, the portraits themselves do not seem to convey the sense of character found in the work of more skilled artists. Husband and wife are stiffly posed, as they gaze unblinkingly into each other's eyes, while their dutifully silent children gather by them. Just as Davis included symbols of a family's role in society, he seems to have made the subjects themselves symbols of refined New Englanders.BibliographyEye of the Collector: Works from the Lipman Collection of American Art (exh. cat. Arizona State University Art Museum, 1999).
Jean Lipman, Robert Bishop, Elizabeth V. Warren, and Sharon L. Eisenstate, Five Star Folk Art: One Hundred American Masterpieces (New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the Museum of American Folk Art, 1990).
Robert Doty, By Good Hands: New Hampshire Folk Art (exh. cat. University Press of New England, 1989).
Paul S. D’Ambrosio and Charlotte Emas Folk Art’s Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association (New York State Historical Association, 1987), pp. 58-64, 208.
Gail and Norbert H. Savage and Esther Sparks, Three New England Watercolor Painters (exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1974), pp.22-41.
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