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Lot Essay
George Hartwell (1815-1901) lived in Boston and Bridgewater, Massachusetts and Lewiston, Maine. An ornamental painter of signs, portraits, theater scenery and church interiors, he was related by marriage to the Prior family. Like William Matthew Prior and his other in-laws, the Hamblins, Hartwell employed a "flat" style of portraiture popular in the mid-nineteenth century.
Although these wonderful portraits are unsigned, they relate closely to three signed examples, all currently in the Fruitlands Museums at Harvard, Massachusetts. The first example, a painting of a man, features a gentleman seated against a gray background, with trees visible over his left shoulder. The other two related works, a pair of portraits of a Mr. and Mrs. John Williams of Pepperell, Massachusetts, include the same landscape element behind the sitter. In the Williams' portraits, the compositions are further embellished and framed by swag drapery with tasseled cords. In the pair of portraits offered here, Hartwell closes in on his subjects, tightening his composition and placing his sitters directly in front of the window while still retaining the drapery component.
Three elements linking the three signed examples with the pair offered here include the use of a rosy palette, particularly evident in the faces of the sitters, the ¾-profile of the sitters, and the landscape motif. All of these works are rendered with exceptional detail and in clean lines.
Although these wonderful portraits are unsigned, they relate closely to three signed examples, all currently in the Fruitlands Museums at Harvard, Massachusetts. The first example, a painting of a man, features a gentleman seated against a gray background, with trees visible over his left shoulder. The other two related works, a pair of portraits of a Mr. and Mrs. John Williams of Pepperell, Massachusetts, include the same landscape element behind the sitter. In the Williams' portraits, the compositions are further embellished and framed by swag drapery with tasseled cords. In the pair of portraits offered here, Hartwell closes in on his subjects, tightening his composition and placing his sitters directly in front of the window while still retaining the drapery component.
Three elements linking the three signed examples with the pair offered here include the use of a rosy palette, particularly evident in the faces of the sitters, the ¾-profile of the sitters, and the landscape motif. All of these works are rendered with exceptional detail and in clean lines.