THE SHERMAN FAMILY AND THEIR LIMNER The three portraits offered here, together with a fourth now in a private collection, represent an important group of folk art portraits executed in about 1787 by the Sherman Limner, whose name derives from these portraits he painted of the prominent family of New Haven, Connecticut: John Sherman (1750-1802), the son of Roger Sherman, John's daughter Maria (1774-1857) and his son, David Austin (1781-1843), whose portrait is signed on the reverse Jany 2d 1787. The fourth portrait, that of John's first wife, Rebecca Austin Sherman (1753-1830) completes the group. Iconic works, these portraits demonstrate the prominence and wealth of the Sherman family through the use of props and compositional techniques. The importance of the Sherman family portraits is threefold. Not only do they speak to the established tradition of painters and limners working in southern and western Connecticut, such as Winthrop Chandler, Ralph Earl, Reuben Moulthrop and The Beardsley Limner, but they are documented in period letters as emotional symbols of a family's turmoil and, given their history, their survival in the family for which they were made is nothing short of miraculous. John and Rebecca's marriage was not a happy one. In 1793, Rebecca filed for divorce, citing that John was adulterous and became violent when drinking. The family portraits apparently became a focus of John's anger and depression with the dissolution of his marriage and at one point, David wrote to his grandfather Roger that his father "than catched down any likeness and Swore it should not be in the house and that he would throw it into the street." In a fit of anger, John Sherman did slash the portrait of his wife, stating further in the divorce proceedings "she means to bring in her cut portrait as an Evidence the whole of them were made at my expense to flatter her Vanity & if the original had been present I should not have done it." Maria and her two sisters wrote to their grandfather Roger Sherman in a letter dated 21 January 1873 that "Our father is not satisfied with heaping disgrace and sorrow upon his children has stripped us of all the furniture he had ever purchased not even excepting our portraits, and arms of the family, which we would whish to retain, as a remembrance of the family from which we are descended." (Thomas Townsend Sherman, The Sherman Genealogy, (New York, 1920), pp. 224-225.) In the end, custody of the portraits was awarded to Maria and they stayed together until divided up amongst her great-great-grandchildren. The portrait of Rebecca Austin Sherman and son Henry was sold by Mary B. Palmer, Maria Sherman's great-great granddaughter, and is illustrated in Christine Skeeles Schloss, The Beardsley Limner and Some Contemporaries: Post-Revolutionary Portraiture in New England, 1785-1805 (Williamsburg, 1972), pp. 45-47, cat. no. 27. During the 1950s, Abraham Delanoy, Jr. (1742-1795) was identified by Susan Sawitzky as the painter of the Sherman portraits. Delanoy trained with Benjamin West in London and is primarily known for his portraits of the Beekman family of New York, now in the New-York Historical Society. While there are close similarities between the Beekman and Sherman portraits, the evidence identifying Delanoy as the Sherman Limner is not conclusive (see Susan Sawitzky, "Abraham Delanoy in New Haven," The New-York Historical Society Quarterly (April 1957) and Deborah Chotner, American Naove Paintings (Washington DC, 1992), pp. 346-347). Several elements of these portraits characterize the work of the Sherman Limner. These include the three-quarter angle pose, a strong contrast of light and shadow, a carefully executed brow and steady gaze, clearly defined lips and a thoughtful rendering of background environment, props and costume details. Technical aspects consist of paint applied thinly with tight, even brush strokes. Based upon these characteristics, a total of nine portraits can be attributed to The Sherman Limner (Chotner, p. 346). The works of the Sherman Limner are important not only for their beauty and visual impact but, especially as evidenced by the portraits in the following lots, as rare documents of the lives of some of America's prominent early families.

SHERMAN LIMNER, (w. 1785-1790)

Portrait of John Sherman (1750-1802)

Details

SHERMAN LIMNER, (w. 1785-1790)
Portrait of John Sherman (1750-1802)
now laid down on aluminum
Oil on canvas
45¾ x 42 inches

Provenance

Maria Sherman Hart (1774-1857)
Harriet Hart Palmer (1803-1842), daughter
Ira Hart Palmer (1836-1903), son
Henry Robinson Palmer (1867-1943), son
Louis B. Palmer (1907-1990), son
Thence by descent to the present owner and consignor

Literature

Susan Sawitzky, "Abraham Delanoy in New Haven," The New-York Historical Society Quarterly (April 1957).
Christine Skeeles Schloss, The Beardsley Limner and Some Contemporaries: Post-Revolutionary Portraiture in New England, 1785-1805 (Williamsburg, 1972), pp. 45-47, cat. no. 26.
Deborah Chotner, American Naive Paintings (Washington DC, 1992), pp. 346-347

Exhibited

Stonington, Connecticut, Village Improvement Society, "Early American Portraits," August 20, 1925
New London, Connecticut, Lyman Allyn Museum, "Eighty Eminent Painters of Connecticut," March 9-April 20, 1947
Montclair, New Jersey, Montclair Art Museum, "The Beardsley Limner and Some Contemporaries," December 17, 1972-January 28, 1973
New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven Colony Historical Society, "The Beardsley Limner and Some Contemporaries," February 11, 1973-March 25, 1973

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