Style of Zedekiah Belknap, Folk Art Portrait of Mother and 2 Children

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Susannah Paine (American, 1792-1862) oil on canvas portrait depicting a lady and two children. The seated woman wears an ornate lace bonnet and holds a book, also grasped by a child dressed in bright blue garb. Standing to their left is a second, older child who wears a grey-blue garment and also holds a book. Housed in a later black wooden frame with ornamental pockmarks and gilt fillet. Unsigned. Early 19th-century. Sight: 31" H x 35" W. Frame: 41" W x 37" H. We wish to thank Michael and Suzanne Rudnick Payne for their research into this artist and for identifying this portrait as Paine's work. Biography (source: Michael R. Payne and Suzanne Rudnick Payne, "A Woman Could Paint a Likeness?" The Magazine Antiques, January 2009): Susannah Paine was a rare female itinerant portrait painter, author and poet, active in New England. Details of her life and career have survived because she wrote an autobiography titled "Roses and Thorns," published in 1854 when she was in her early 60s. Paine was born in Rehoboth, Massachusetts and attended an art academy in Rhode Island. Following a divorce from her husband and the death of her only son, she began a career as a traveling folk artist in 1823, "gradually developing a clientele and often cultivating women who took pride in having their portrait painted by a woman artist. She was a cautious traveler, never staying in hotels nor traveling by stage coach at night. She moved between boarding houses only after careful inquiry and accompanied by a letter of introduction." Her signed portraits that have been found date from 1827-1859 and indicate she was active mostly in Rhode Island, Maine, and Massachusetts.
PROVENANCE: Private Illinois Collection.
CONDITION: Very good condition, lined. 1/2" area of repair in upper left background. Some surface debris.