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Portrait 1976.100.3
Portrait of Harriet A. Glines [later, Mrs. Jonathan Adams Bartlett](1818-1893)
Portrait 1976.100.3

Portrait of Harriet A. Glines [later, Mrs. Jonathan Adams Bartlett](1818-1893)

Date1841
Artist Jonathan Adams Bartlett (1817 - 1902)
OriginAmerica, Maine, South Rumford
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 31 7/8 x 27in. (81 x 68.6cm) and Framed: 35 x 3in.
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1976.100.3
DescriptionA three-quarter-length portrait of a young woman shown standing and turned slightly towards the viewer's right, her eyes on the viewer. She has pale blue eyes and dark brown, center-parted, chin-length hair that hangs in curls. She wears a pale green dress whose extremes of contrast range nearly to black and white; it has elbow-length sleeves, a low, off-the-shoulder neckline, a pleated bodice, and a V-waistline accented by a black belt having an ornamental rectangular clasp. On the front of her dress at the neckline, she wears a rectangular brooch, a depiction of a floral still life on a black background. Her proper left arm is raised waist high and, in that hand, she clasps a bird. Her proper right arm hangs down beside her, the hand not shown. Behind her, a red drapery with yellow tassels fills the upper left corner of the composition. A vase of roses is shown on a table in the background at the right, near a bird in a cage.

The 4 3/4-inch splayed mahogany-veneered frame is original and has a 3/8-inch rounded black-painted sight edge and an ornamental brass hanger at center top.
Label TextJonathan Bartlett’s self-portrait provides a rare glimpse of a folk artist’s conception of himself and his vocation, just as it documents the tools of his trade. Artistic pride is evident in the prominent display of brushes, palette, palette knife, grinding slab, and muller, the cone-shaped device shown resting on the slab, used to crush dry pigment. Although clearly proud of his artistic abilities, Barlett (1817-1902) was a farmer and house carpenter by trade and also tried his hand at cabinetmaking, photography, music, and teaching. The original mahogany-veneered frames were reportedly made by him.

The painter signed and dated this companion portrait of his fiancée, Harriet A. Glines (1818–1893), whom he married in May 1842. The couple raised eight children plus three grandchildren left motherless by early deaths in the family. The Bartletts’ portraits descended in their family until 1976.

InscribedPainted in period script on the verso is "H, A, Glines. Ae 23/Painted-1841-By J, A, Bartlett."
ProvenanceEverard Lyford Bartlett, South Rumford, Me.; William A. Bartlett, Rumford Center, Me.; unidentified dealer, Norway, Me.; J. E. Martin, Mexico, Me.; Peter H. Tillou, Litchfield, Conn.
Exhibition(s)