Landscape with Figures

Dateca. 1780

Attributed to Isaac Heston (1746-1824)

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

MediumOil on panel (panel microscopically analyzed as Chamaecyparis thyoides, Atlantic White Cedar, with yellow pine battens, 3/18/2011)

DimensionsUnframed: 21 1/8 x 38 1/2in. (53.7 x 97.8cm)

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1939.101.1

DescriptionA bucolic scene showing a couple seated on a bank beside a stream. The man is turned toward the woman with his back nearly square to the viewer, his proper left hand resting on the head of a grey hound, who stands at his feet. The woman faces the man, but her proper right arm extends straight out towards the stream; she appears to be pointing or gesturing with the folded fan she holds in that hand. She wears a pink dress with elbow-length sleeves; a white fichu; and a white apron, as well as a triple-poufed, visored cap and a triple-strand necklace. He wears white stockings, a black cocked hat with a cockade, a rust-colored coat and matching breeches, and a brighter red waistcoat. His brown hair is clubbed at the back. The two sit at the base of a tree on a point of land, with a two-chimnied grey stone (or grey brick?) building shown, half-visible and below grade, at the far right. The stream bends to the right around them. Several swans are visible on the far side of the stream to the viewer's left, with a man on the far bank near the birds. An L-plan structure is shown on the far bank; its taller section is a pale blue-green, 3-bay, and 3-stories; its other section is reddish pink, 5-bay, and 1 story. Other buildings appear on the far shore beyond the bend in the stream.

The primary support consists of two, 7/8-inch thick, horizontally-laid planks of white cedar glued together and further secured on the reverse by three vertically-applied yellow pine battens. The picture is not framed, though various holes along the edges of the back indicate that it has been toe-nailed and -screwed into more than one setting in the past.

Label TextBy 1939, dealer Edith Gregor Halpert (see "Provenance") had acquired this painting with the understanding that its artist had been "a member of the Heston family after whom the location portrayed, Hestonville, was named. It [Hestonville] is now part of Philadelphia." Later, much of Halpert's information was supported and amplified by discovery of a portrait of Catharine Clinton Heston (1755-1807); according to a handwritten label placed on the back of that portrait by a family descendant in --- probably --- 1906, it was painted by the sitter's huband, Isaac Heston. Stylistically, Catharine's portrait and the Folk Art Museum's scene seem attributable to the same hand.

Some genealogical sources say that, before the Revolutionary War, Isaac Heston and his brother, Thomas, operated a plumbing business in Philadelphia. However, a 1768 newspaper advertisement placed by Isaac reveals an alternative (or possibly additional) livelihood: "Coach, Chaise, Chair, Sign, or any kind of Lanscape Painting; -- also Lettering and Gilding."

On June 1, 1795, Heston and Parnell Gibbs formed a partnership as painters and glaziers in Philadelphia. In this capacity, they painted, stained, gilded, lettered, and/or glazed a variety of objects, including buildings, boats, coaches, chaises, flags, drums, casks, bags, furniture, floor cloths, fire buckets, picture frames, signs, tinplate, coffins, and grave boards (burial markers). After the two men dissolved their partnership February 7-8, 1797, Heston worked alone as a painter, documenting his jobs in the same day book, until 1811. A particularly interesting entry for August 27, 1805, lists painting Edward Heston's "likeness in Profile on Silk" for $30. [Identity of the sitter is unconfirmed, but possibly he was Isaac's older brother, Edward Warner Heston (1745-1824)].

Isaac married Catharine Clinton (1751-1807) at Old Swedes Church in Philadelphia on June 7, 1774. Catharine's portrait (now --- 9/12/2011 --- privately owned) is sometimes described as painted at or about the time of the couple's marriage, which remains unconfirmed but seems conceivable in terms of costuming. Among the couple's seven children, their eldest son, Jacob (1776-1804), practiced portrait painting.

The figures in the Folk Art Museum's painting are unidentified and, indeed, may only be decorative representations of a generic, fashionable couple. The bucolic scene is the type often found in engravings and other prints during the period. But if Heston derived his composition from a print, the source has yet to be identified. The painting's idyllic theme, scale, and horizontal format suggest it may have been intended as a "chimney piece," i.e., a decorative scene to be displayed above a fireplace, usually set within the architectural framework or painted directly on the wall's paneling. However, the primary support is surprisingly thick for such a use, and its edges are not beveled, casting doubt on its original or intended use.
ProvenanceEdith Gregor Halpert, Downtown Gallery, New York, NY; in 1939, purchased by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, by whom given to Colonial Williamsburg.