Stephen Bedell (b. 1828)

Date1839-1843 (probably)

Possibly by Prudence Bedell (b. 1829)

MediumWatercolor and graphite on wove paper

DimensionsPrimary Support: 12 1/8 x 7 5/8in. (30.8 x 19.4cm) and Framed: 15 7/16 x 10 15/16in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1959.300.2

DescriptionA full-face, three-quarter-length portrait of a young man shown standing, his hands clasped in front of him at about waist height. He wears gray pants; a brown cutoff tailcoat having wide lapels and yellow buttons at breast and cuffs; and a black tie. His waistcoat and collar are rendered in graphite and left uncolored. His facial features were rendered in graphite with lips, eyes, and eyebrows watercolored respectively pink, brown, and black. He has dark brown hair. His hands are rendered in graphite. A proper name is inscribed across the top, to either side of his head, in dark brown or black outlined block lettering.

The 1 1/4-inch, splayed, black-painted frame is a period replacement.
Label TextAccording to the subject names inscribed on them, accession numbers 1959.300.1, 1959.300.2, and 1959.300.3 appear to represent the second, third, and fifth of the five children born to John W. Bedell (1798-1877) and his first wife, Martha Titus Bedell (1798-1835) of New Baltimore, Greene County, New York. Birth dates for the children provided by an unpublished genealogy are: Charles T., 1821; J. Anna, 1826; Stephen, 1828; Prudence, 1829; and Martha T., 1832 (n. 1).

Costumes and hairstyles suggest these portraits predate 1845, while 1839 watermarks provide a firm date for the beginning of their possible execution range. If the genealogy birth dates are correct and if an 1840 date of portrait execution is used, then respectively, Ann, Stephen, and Martha would have been about fourteen, twelve, and eight years of age in the pictures.

Provenance prior to AARFAM's source (The Old Print Shop) is unverified, but file notes suggest that early Sheffield, Massachusetts, folk art collectors J. Stuart Halladay and Herrel George Thomas may have owned the three portraits --- or at least discussed them with their then owner --- in the 1940s. The file notes state that Prudence B[edell] painted all three portraits (n. 2). In 1840, the trio's sister, Prudence, would have been a precocious eleven or so years of age.

Two privately-owned portraits that seem stylistically attributable to the same hand do not bear subject names but might represent missing siblings/artist Charles and Prudence. A third privately-owned portrait shows a young man and, in the same manner as the Bedell trio, is inscribed "CALEB PIERCE." Whether or not Pierce was related to the Bedell family has not yet (1019/2012) been determined.

AARFAM's three Bedell portraits are interesting, in part, for the varying distances represented between artist and subjects. Ann is portrayed at a fair distance, Martha a bit closer, and Stephen closer still. Caleb Pierce and the unnamed privately-owned man mentioned above are both shown three-quarter-length and seated in side chairs.

Ann Bedell and her two sisters all attended the Troy Female Seminary (since renamed the Emma Willard School) in Troy, New York, intermittently between 1848 and 1850 (n. 3). Stephen is said to have attended school in "Washington" (n. 2). Ann, Stephen, and Prudence all remained unmarried and were living with their father (and, by then, his second wife, Elizabeth Coonley Bedell) when censuses were taken in 1855 and 1865. (Stephen was listed as a "boatman" in the first report.) Ann and Prudence were still with their father by the time the 1880 Federal Census was taken; Stephen may have died by then. He certainly seems to have died by the time a county history was published in 1884, for it omitted naming him, alone, among the surviving children of John W. Bedell (see Beers, "Bibliography").
InscribedHand-lettered in graphite and ink or watercolor in open block letters at the top is "STEPHEN BEDELL". Penciled horizontal guidelines and some additional roughed-in letters are also visible in this area.
MarkingsA blind stamp in the lower right corner shows an oval containing a coat of arms with the words "LONDON/ABRADED DR . . . BOARD."

A watermark in the primary support reads "J. WHATMAN/TURKEY MILL/1839" for the Maidstone, Kent, England firm operated by the Hollingsworth brothers between 1806 and 1859.

ProvenancePossibly J. Stuart Halladay amd Herrel George Thomas, Sheffield, Mass. (see n. 2 under "Notes"); an unidentified Connecticut owner (see n. 1 under "Provenance"); The Old Print Shop, New York, NY, which was AARFAM's source.

n. 1: The Old Print Shop stated that acc. nos. 1959.300.1-1959.300.3 "came to us from Connecticut" in its _Portfolio_, XVIII (March 1959), p. 161.