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Permilia Forbes Sweet
Permilia Forbes Sweet
Artist (1808 - 1836)

Permilia Forbes Sweet

Datec. 1832
DimensionsSight: 5 5/8 × 4 1/2 in. (14.3 × 11.4 cm)
Object numberN0103.1968
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Museum Purchase
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextDeborah Goldsmith, born in Madison County, New York, had a brief but successful career as an itinerant portrait painter. She traveled to neighboring counties executing likenesses for friends and acquaintances. It is not known if she had any professional training, but her sketch books point to her familiarity with the decorative idioms and pictorial clichés popular among schoolgirls and other amateur artists of the period. Goldsmith died at age 27, and her family preserved her friendship albums, paintings, worktable, and supplies.
ProvenanceRobert Palmiter, Bouckville, New York (descendant of sitter)
BibliographySandra C. Shaffer, "Deborah Goldsmith, 1808-1836: A Naïve Artist in Upstate New York," (East St. Louis, Ill., 1975), checklist no. 61 on p.38.

Paul S. D'Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans, "Folk Art's Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association," Cooperstown, NYSHA, 1987, pp.87-88, illus. as no.47 on p. 88
On View
Not on view
Lady
Deborah Goldsmith
c. 1832
Gentleman
Deborah Goldsmith
c. 1832
Eunice Day
John Brewster Jr.
1820
Sophia M. Pitkin
James Herring
1824
Unidentified Gentleman and His Wife
James Sanford Ellsworth
1852
Separate Tables
Joseph H. Davis
c. 1835
Lady of the Folts Family of Albany
James Sanford Ellsworth
c. 1845
Philadelphia Gentry
J. Smith
c. 1815
Ivory Mourning Miniature of Unidentified Young Woman
Unidentified Artist
early 19th Century
Friendship Albums
Deborah Goldsmith
1826-1830

5798 STATE HIGHWAY 80
COOPERSTOWN NY, 13326
607-547-1400

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