A Pair of Portraits of Mr. Philo Franklin Wilcox and Mrs. Orpha J. Wilcox

This pair of portraits illustrates one of Joseph Whiting Stock’s most important patrons, Philo Franklin Wilcox (1805-1871) and his wife, Orpha J. Wood (1808-1890). As recorded in the artist’s account book, the couple were painted, along with their nine-year old son, George, in 1838. In 1845, Stock painted two more of their children posthumously, once in a double portrait and again in paired individual portraits. These works, showing the young Mary and Francis Wilcox with their favorite toys are among the most significant survivals of the artist’s work and are now in the collections of the National Gallery of Art (the double portrait, acc. no. 1959.11.2) and the American Folk Art Museum (the pair of individual portraits, acc. nos. 2014.6.1, .2).

Found in the home of a member of the Plumb family in Springfield, Massachusetts, the portraits were first thought to represent a Daniel Plumb and his wife along with a third portrait, their son Daniel, Jr. However, the only people living in the region with these names found in the genealogical record are Daniel Plumb (1746-1793) and his son, Daniel (1770-1792), who both died before the artist was born. Research undertaken by the firm of Nathan Liverant & Son in 1979 revealed that these portraits instead illustrate the ancestors of an allied member of the Plumb family, Philo Franklin and Orpha J. Wilcox (see Literature above; for the portrait of the couple's son, George Wilcox, described as Daniel Plumb, Jr., see Sotheby’s, New York, January 22, 2006, lot 352). Philo’s mother, Lucy Plumb (b. 1777), was the daughter and brother of the aforementioned Daniel Plumbs, illustrating the interconnections between the two families. The Liverants’ conclusion is supported by a printed image of Philo in his later years that closely resembles the portrait of the man offered here (Louis H. Everts, History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, vol. II (Philadelphia, 1879), p. 845).

Born in East Berlin, Connecticut, Philo (Philomen) Franklin Wilcox moved to Springfield, Massachusetts in about 1824 where he worked with his brother, Philip, as a tinner before setting up his own business. He married Orpha J. Wood in 1826 and the couple had seven children. He appears to have enjoyed rapid success and in the 1830s he was serving on some of the more prominent civic and political posts in Springfield. He retired from his business in 1840 and thereafter focused on real estate investments, served in the state legislature and was President of the Chicopee Bank. In 1851, his net worth was estimated at $100,000 (Everts, p. 845; A. Forbes and J.W. Greene, The Rich Men of Massachusetts (Boston, 1851), pp. 150-151).