AFA 20th Anniversary

Attributed to Rufus Porter (1792- 1884), Joseph S. Adams and Sarah Wetherbee Adams , ca. 1833. Watercolor and graphite on paper, 5⅛ x 4¼ in. Private collection. Porter’s output of miniatures declined during the 1830s as he turned his attention to mechanical inventions and other pursuits. Of the 120 miniatures attributed to him by Deborah Child, only eighteen date after 1830. In fine condition, these compelling likenesses of a Harvard, Massachusetts, cabinetmaker and his wife were painted not long after their marriage in 1830. They reveal Porter’s mastery of his medium as well as his stylistic shift to frontal poses and modeling with stippling and cross-hatching. 20th Anniversary 144 www.afamag.com | www.incollect.com Attributed to Rufus Porter (1792–1884), Thomas Long , ca. 1815–1817. Watercolor on paper, sheet 3⅜ x 2 ⁄ in. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Me.; Gift of Julie Lindberg (2016.45). Image courtesy of the Williamstown Conservation Center, Williamstown, Massachusetts. A keen observer and accomplished painter, Porter likely created watercolor portraits as a way to support his family. Porter’s perceptiveness produced likenesses that were true-to-life. His portraits of Thomas Long (1798–1841), a musician like Porter and illustrated here, and his sister Betsey Long (1796–1867), in the collection of the Rufus Porter Museum, Bridgton, Maine, are among Porter’s earliest known Maine works. Thomas’s frame, a reproduction based on the original that surrounds his sister’s image, is based on Porter’s own instructions in A Select Collection of Valuable and Curious Arts, and Interesting Experiments, Which are Well Explained and Warranted Genuine and May Be Performed Easily, Safely, and At Little Expense, the 1825 edition of his art manual, known as the Curious Arts. 1