The Tilton Family

Date1837

Attributed to Joseph H. Davis (1811-1865)

OriginAmerica, New Hampshire, Deerfield (possibly)

MediumWatercolor, pencil and ink on wove paper

DimensionsPrimary support: 10 x 15 1/16in. (10 x 15 1/16in.) and Framed: 13 3/8 x 18 7/8 x 7/8in.

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1936.300.6

DescriptionMr. Tilton sits at left facing right reading the N. H. PATRIOT AND STATE GAZETTE. He wears black shoes, dark brown pants, a black coat, checkered vest. His hands and face are drawn with pencil with black eye, eyebrow, and brown hair. On a two tone brown grained table with drawer in front of him are pieces of writing paper, an inkwell with qulll, a large book labelef HOLY BIBLE on the spine, a small untitled book (both books colored in yellow, red, and orange), and a blue vase of mixed flowers. Over and behind the table is a garland of leaves swagged and forming a small wreath in the center inside of which is lettered "Jan/183(7)" presumably the month the watercolor was made. The child Isabell stands at the right with her black and white cat, holding a doll in her right hand and offering a bunch of flowers to her mother with her left. She wears an orange dress and pantelettes with black dots and shaded with red. She has brown hair, black eye. Her face is finely drawn with pencil. Mrs. Tilton sits at the right facing left with a small orange and red book in her left hand. Her dress is painted in gloss and matte black with puffed sleeves above the elbows; she wears a white apron with bown design in blue and black and a small blue shawl with flowered border and fringed edge. A small black diamond shaped pin holds her shawl together at the neck. She has black hair, with a high comb, drop earings, black eyes. Her face and hand are delicately drawn in pencil. Both side chairs are colored as yellow and brown-like grained furniture. The floor covering has a green and black background with diagonal blue stripes of blue and black, and loose stylized floral and geometric motifs in shades of orange, red and yellow. The central motif consists of four hearts with crossing diagonal bands of yellow striped with black. The figures are set against a background of uncolored paper. The lettering at the bottom is set on pencil guidelines and is divided into units alternately slanting to the right and left. The whole composition appears for the most part to have been laid out in pencil first.
Label TextEndless variety and experimentation can be found within Joseph H. Davis's broadly formulaic approach to portraiture. For instance, his wildly patterned, vibrantly colored floor coverings usually incorporate medallions, lines of dots, and abstract, geometric shapes, but he varied their configurations and combinations. The impression is that the artist amused himself by constant invention. His floor coverings could be inspired doodling.
Davis typically showed full-length figures with faces in strict profile and bodies slightly turned toward the viewer. His spouses invariably face one another. Yet within this basic pattern, endlessly diverse and often charming details appear, such as the cat that paws at a fold of little Isabell Tilton's skirt. A fascinating range of motifs decorates the rear walls of Davis's imagined room settings. In the Tilton portrait, a swagged drape encloses what is believed to be the date of the picture's execution, "Jan[uary] 1837."

MarkingsLettered in ink in the swagged medallion at the top is "JAN/1837." In ink in script in the bottom margin is "John T. Tilton. Aged 33. Decembr 2d.1836. Isabell A. Tilton. Aged 32 March/8th 1837." Printed in ink at the top of the newspaper is "N.H.PATRIOT.&/STATE- GAZETTE." No watermark found.
ProvenanceFound in Cambridge, Mass., or in Maine; Katrina Kipper, Accord, Mass.; Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.; Given to C. W. in 1949 by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.