Martha T. Bedell (b. 1832)

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 11in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1959.300.3

DescriptionA full-face, three-quarter-length portrait of a young girl. She wears a dark green, long-sleeved dress, shaded in black. The sleeves are gathered in puffs over the upper arms, tight above the wrists, and quite full over the elbows. The neckline is wide but not too low (a modern "boat neck"). She wears a triple strand of black beads around her neck. Her shoulder-length dark brown, center-parted hair hangs loose and turns up at the ends. She has pink lips and cheeks, with a bit of light pink in her hands. At waist height, she holds a red rose in her proper right hand, with her open proper left hand held below it. A proper name is inscribed above her head in graphite.

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 Birth dates for the children provided by an unpublished genealogy are: Charles T., 1821; J. Anna, 1826; Stephen, 1828; Prudence, 1829; and Martha T., 1832 (n. 1).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.

Martha 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). Martha qualified as a teacher and taught school until she married J. (or Milo S.) Swan; after Swan's death, she married Jesse V. Sweating (or Sweeting) and lived in nearby Medway, New York (Sage, "Bibliography").
InscribedHand-lettered in graphite and ink or watercolor in open block letters at the top is "MARTHA T. BEDELL". Penciled horizontal guidelines and some additional roughed-in letters are also visible in this area.
MarkingsThe embossing of an oval blind stamp in the upper right corner is too weak to read, but is presumed to duplicate that found on 1959.300.2, which see.

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.