SHERMAN LIMNER (w.1785-1790)

Portrait of David Austin Sherman (1781-1843)

Details

SHERMAN LIMNER (w.1785-1790)
Portrait of David Austin Sherman (1781-1843)
Inscribed Jany 2d 1787 (on the reverse, now obscured), now laid down on aluminum
Oil on canvas
25 x 21 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
Henry Robinson Palmer, Jr. (1911-1993), son
Thence by descent to the present owner and consignor

Literature

F.B. Dexter, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, 6 vols, (New York, 1895-1912), vol. 5, pp. 537-538.
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. 29.
Deborah Chotner, American Naove Paintings (Washington DC, 1992), pp. 345-347.

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

Lot Essay

David was the second son of John Sherman and Rebecca Austin Sherman. He graduated from Yale College in 1802 where he studied literature and theology. He became licensed to preach in 1812. He Married Mary Ann Babcock of Stonington, Connecticut in 1813. His wife died two years later. He was president of East Tennessee College, Knoxville from 1820-1825 and then taught in New York. From 1840 until his death he was an evangelist in East Troy, Wisconsin (Schloss, p. 47).

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