Portrait of Debrah Martin (ca. 1802-?)

Date1833

Artist Asahel Lynde Powers (1813-1843)

MediumOil on wood panel

DimensionsUnframed: 33 1/2 x 25in. (85.1 x 63.5cm) and Framed: 36 x 28in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1975.100.2

DescriptionA three-quarter-length portrait of a middle-aged woman seated in a decorated, yellow-painted, plank-seat arm chair. She is turned slightly towards the viewer's right. She wears a black dress embellished overall with vertical rows of colorful flowers and having a round, ruffled, white collar at the neckline, also a white cap with a brown bow on top of it and a gold necklace. She sits with her hands in her lap, holding a rose bloom in her proper right hand, on the index finger of which she wears a gold ring. She has brown hair and brown eyes. The background is a mottled black and brown.

The 1 1/2-inch molded frame, painted black with gold-painted edges, is original.
Label TextAsahel Powers's expressive portraits of Debrah and John Martin exhibit many of the characteristics of the artist's early work, including heavy gray shadowing, strong black outlines, and boldly painted, loose, swirling depictions of fabrics. Fastidious attention to details of costumes and accessories is evidenced in the elegant black embroidery of John Martin's vest and colorful floral design of Debrah's dress.

The portrait subjects' exact relationship to one another remains undetermined. At age thirty-one, Debrah could have been a young wife or a daughter of fifty-three-year-old John, or she may have been more distantly related to him.
InscribedIn painted script on the verso is "Debrah Martin/AE 31 1833/A Powers." In both instances, the initials "A" and "P" of the signature are combined.
ProvenanceMr. and Mrs. Donald H. Ladd, Hampton, Conn.; Maze Pottinger Antiques, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.