Portrait of Sarah Carpenter (?-?)
Date1807
Artist
Zedekiah Belknap
(1781 - 1858)
OriginAmerica, New Hampshire
MediumOil on canvas, with a non-original panel secondary support
DimensionsUnframed: 26 3/8 x 21 7/8in. (67 x 55.6cm) and Framed: 30 1/8 x 25 9/16 x 2 1/2in.
Credit LineGift of Betsy S. Hart in memory of her husband, Thomas F. Hart, and her parents, William A. and Betty Lee Skoglund
Object number2009.100.1
DescriptionA half-length portrait of a [middle-aged?] woman, seated and turned one-quarter towards the viewer's right, her lower arms and hands not visible. She wears a tall, sheer white embroidered cap having a ruffle around the face and a bow on the top, its ribbons tied in a bow beneath her chin. A sheer white fichu fills the low neck of her black dress. She has brown hair and brown eyes. She sits in a chair whose near arm is barely visible. The background is undefined and painted a warm brown. The 2-inch black-painted frame has a splayed outer edge and gilded liner and appears to be a twentieth-century replacement.
Label TextFormerly, the portrait was grouped with two others, of John and Xperience Carpenter, that were also painted by Zedekiah Belknap in 1807, making the trio the earliest works to be recorded from the artist's hand. (The three were separated in 1969, and the locations of the other two portraits are unknown.) The three sitters are thought to have been related, although none of their identities have been verified through historical records yet.
Belknap completed his divinity studies at Dartmouth College the same year he painted the Carpenters (and it would be interesting to know what influenced his career change). The three paintings provide an instructive starting point for assessing the artist's evolution as a painter. Only relatively subtly do they hint at the style that Belknap was to develop more fully --- and practice with exceptional consistency --- in later years.
InscribedA modern inscription in black paint in upright script on the back of the panel secondary support reads: "Sarah Carpenter/Zedekiah Belknap/Pixit 1807/Restored 1960". Presumably the first three lines transcribe an original inscription on the back of the primary support (which is now hidden by the panel).
ProvenanceThe donor and her husband, Thomas Hart, bought the painting in 1969 from dealer Eleanor Robertson of Woodstock, Illinois, who, at that time, also owned the apparently related portraits of John and Xperience Carpenter (see "Related Works").
ca. 1835
1606-1615 (possibly)
Probably 1838-1842