Interior: Man Facing Woman

Dateca. 1835

Attributed to Joseph H. Davis (1811-1865)

OriginAmerica, Maine or New Hampshire (probably)

MediumWatercolor and pencil on wove paper

DimensionsPrimary Support: 10 5/8 x 16 1/2in. (27 x 41.9cm); Composition: 9 3/4 x 15 1/2in. (24.8 x 39.4cm); and Framed: 13 5/8 x 19 1/2in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1958.300.9

DescriptionUnidentified man at left facing right in profile and standing. He is wearing black pants and coat, a blue striped white vest, brown gloves and holds a top hat in his left hand. Behind him is a yellow-grained side chair with orange seat. On a blue grained table in the center are pieces of writing paper, an ink well with two quills in it, a single book, and a stack of two smaller books (all untitled). Beneath the table is a black and white cat and above is a yellow banjo clock reading approximately 12:22. To the right an unidentified woman, standing, facing left in profile, holding a purse to her side with her left hand and holding out a small opened book with her right. A yellow-grained side chair with and orange seat is behind her. All placed on a carpet with yellow ground, large green floral designs, and large blue ovals. The background is tinted with pale blue wash. The 1 3/4-inch orange and ochre grain-painted, splayed frame is possibly original.
Label TextAlthough Davis's profiles, particularly his later works, bear crisp, hard, but sensitively drawn pencil outlines, some of his unfinished or trial sketches reveal that he often arrived at precision through deliberate reworkings. The features of the two unidentified subjects in this uninscribed double portrait were heavily retraced at some point; the heavy retracing and the generally immature, hesitant quality of the entire compositionand its elements suggest that the portrait is one of the artist's earliest, perhaps even abandoned, efforts. The handling of the cat, the subjects' faces, the woman's dress, the man's hat, and the rough brushwork of the carpet seem particularly awkward and inept when compared with more confidently executed later works.
Technically this portrait deviates from most of Davis's other likenesses in the use of a pale blue painted background, although a pair of half-length miniatures attributed to him employ the same device.
MarkingsA watermark in the primary support reads "[?]MAN W BALSTON & CO/1814," probably for William Balston of the Springfield Mill, the present J. Whatman Ltd. mill, Maidstone, Kent, England.
ProvenanceJ. Stuart Halladay and Herrel George Thomas, Sheffield, Mass. Halladay died in 1951, leaving his interest in their jointly-owned collection to his partner, Thomas. Thomas died in 1957, leaving his estate to his sister, Mrs. Albert N. Petterson, who was AARFAC's vendor.