.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present overmantel is a remarkable survival by Winthrop Chandler and a patriotic celebration of a young nation. A large American flag proudly waves from the stern of a ship heading down river; a declaration of pride for the newly won independence achieved two years earlier with the Treaty of Paris signed on September 3, 1783. The landscape is a fantastical and wonderful example of Winthrop Chandler’s small group of known overmantel works. These paintings were employed as decoration above fireplaces in American homes, taverns and gathering places during the second half of the eighteenth century. Landscape painting as room decorating was popular in England in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and first appeared in America when English artists arrived in the South and advertised their skills in local newspapers (Nina Fletcher Little, American Decorative Wall Painting, 1700-1850 (New York, 1972 (reprint 1989), p. 17). American artists responded quickly to this taste for decoration, and Chandler created some of the earliest extant American landscape panels.
Winthrop Chandler was a versatile artist, best known for his portraits of friends and family in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Chandler was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, where he would spend most of his life on Chandler Hill, the family home owned for generations. The History of Worcester (1862) notes that Chandler “studied the art of portrait painting in Boston” but there is no evidence of apprenticeship papers filed in Connecticut or Massachusetts to confirm as such. However, it seems that Chandler was away from Worcester for seven years, the time of a standard apprenticeship, and upon his return to Connecticut, he received an important commission to paint the portraits of Reverend Ebenezer Devotion and his wife Martha Lathrop, dated 1770 (Brookline Historical Society, Brookline, Massachusetts). Two years later, he married Mary Gleason, and they had five sons and two daughters. In the summer of 1775, Chandler moved his wife and children to Worcester, Massachusetts. Mary died in 1789 and he returned to Connecticut in early 1790; he died in July of that year amidst financial woes and a broken family (Jean Lipman and Tom Armstrong, eds., American Folk Painters of Three Centuries (New York, 1980), pp. 26-29).
The present overmantel painting is a part of a small group of at least eight overmantels which Nina Fletcher Little describes as the “most interesting aspects of Winthrop Chandler’s art” (Winthrop Chandler, American Folk Painters of Three Centuries (New York, 1980), p.34). It was commissioned by Jonas Kendall (1757-1844) of Leominster, Massachusetts and owner of the town’s Kendall Tavern, opened in 1785. Kendall was a paper manufacturer and served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the state senate and was elected as a Federalist to the sixteenth U.S. Congress. The tavern served as a major coach stop for travelers on their way to and from Boston and for a brief moment served as the freemason meeting house for the Aurora Lodge in 1801. The December 10 1902 edition of The Boston Globe captions the tavern as the ‘Birthplace of Masonry in That Section of the State’.
Chandler’s landscapes were mostly fantastical interpretations of places and events. Tradition identifies this scene as a view of Boston Harbor with the city’s Old North Church steeple rising above the buildings in the background. Regardless of its inspiration, Chandler creates a pleasing picture that would have been a handsome focal point of any room. The foreground is cut by a river which winds its way toward the horizon line, creating a sense of space and depth. The two large homes are painted with rectangular hip roofs, a favorite of Chandler’s and also seen in his Pomfret and Bunker Hill panels (Private collection; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, no. 1982.281) and the one in the foreground is likely meant to depict Kendall Tavern which still stands today (fig. 1 Kendall Tavern, Leominster, Massachusetts, circa 1880). Scholarship discusses that Chandler supplemented his income by painting homes, which allowed him a comprehensive understanding of architectural details, which is seen in the way he outlines the window frames, cornices and corner boards of houses in white (Nina Fletcher Little, “Winthrop Chandler”, Art in America, vol. 35.2 (April 1947), pp. 153-4). The grand well-kept lawns are dotted with tiny figures, while the two large trees in the foreground offer a whimsical drama to the composition. The panel stayed in its original location in Kendall Tavern until 1984.
Winthrop Chandler was a versatile artist, best known for his portraits of friends and family in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Chandler was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, where he would spend most of his life on Chandler Hill, the family home owned for generations. The History of Worcester (1862) notes that Chandler “studied the art of portrait painting in Boston” but there is no evidence of apprenticeship papers filed in Connecticut or Massachusetts to confirm as such. However, it seems that Chandler was away from Worcester for seven years, the time of a standard apprenticeship, and upon his return to Connecticut, he received an important commission to paint the portraits of Reverend Ebenezer Devotion and his wife Martha Lathrop, dated 1770 (Brookline Historical Society, Brookline, Massachusetts). Two years later, he married Mary Gleason, and they had five sons and two daughters. In the summer of 1775, Chandler moved his wife and children to Worcester, Massachusetts. Mary died in 1789 and he returned to Connecticut in early 1790; he died in July of that year amidst financial woes and a broken family (Jean Lipman and Tom Armstrong, eds., American Folk Painters of Three Centuries (New York, 1980), pp. 26-29).
The present overmantel painting is a part of a small group of at least eight overmantels which Nina Fletcher Little describes as the “most interesting aspects of Winthrop Chandler’s art” (Winthrop Chandler, American Folk Painters of Three Centuries (New York, 1980), p.34). It was commissioned by Jonas Kendall (1757-1844) of Leominster, Massachusetts and owner of the town’s Kendall Tavern, opened in 1785. Kendall was a paper manufacturer and served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the state senate and was elected as a Federalist to the sixteenth U.S. Congress. The tavern served as a major coach stop for travelers on their way to and from Boston and for a brief moment served as the freemason meeting house for the Aurora Lodge in 1801. The December 10 1902 edition of The Boston Globe captions the tavern as the ‘Birthplace of Masonry in That Section of the State’.
Chandler’s landscapes were mostly fantastical interpretations of places and events. Tradition identifies this scene as a view of Boston Harbor with the city’s Old North Church steeple rising above the buildings in the background. Regardless of its inspiration, Chandler creates a pleasing picture that would have been a handsome focal point of any room. The foreground is cut by a river which winds its way toward the horizon line, creating a sense of space and depth. The two large homes are painted with rectangular hip roofs, a favorite of Chandler’s and also seen in his Pomfret and Bunker Hill panels (Private collection; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, no. 1982.281) and the one in the foreground is likely meant to depict Kendall Tavern which still stands today (fig. 1 Kendall Tavern, Leominster, Massachusetts, circa 1880). Scholarship discusses that Chandler supplemented his income by painting homes, which allowed him a comprehensive understanding of architectural details, which is seen in the way he outlines the window frames, cornices and corner boards of houses in white (Nina Fletcher Little, “Winthrop Chandler”, Art in America, vol. 35.2 (April 1947), pp. 153-4). The grand well-kept lawns are dotted with tiny figures, while the two large trees in the foreground offer a whimsical drama to the composition. The panel stayed in its original location in Kendall Tavern until 1984.