15th Anniversary Preview

Fine American Art for Six Generations V O S E 1841 EST G A L L E R I E S LLC 238 Newbury Street . Boston . MA . 02116 . Telephone 617.536.6176 . Toll Free 866.862.4871 info@vosegalleries.com . w ww.vosegalleries.com A very rare early pair of portraits by itinerant painter Rufus Hathaway Left: Captain Pollycarpus Edson, oil on canvas mounted to panel, 30 1/2 x 25 inches Dated and inscribed lower left: 1791 / Suae / ay Right: Mrs. Pollycarpus Edson (Lucy Eaton), oil on canvas mounted to panel, 27 3/4 x 23 inches Inscribed lower right: Aetatis. 31., 1791 Very little is known about Rufus Hathaway’s early training, although it has been suggested that he learned the portrait limner trade and wood carving from ship builders and painters in southeastern Massachusetts. In 1791, Hathaway arrived in Duxbury, Massachusetts, and began creating portraits of members of the prominent fam- ilies there and in nearby towns: the Eddys, Edsons, West- ons and Winslows. In 1795, Hathaway married Judith Winslow, the daughter of a wealthy Duxbury merchant. Together, the Hathaways had twelve children, and Rufus Hathaway became a highly respected physician in Duxbury, painting portraits only occasionally after 1795. The portraits of Pollycarpus Edson—named for the second century Greek Christian martyr, Polycarp—and his wife, Lucy Eaton, project a prosperous family from Bridgewater, Massachusetts. A successful businessman and landowner, Edson was a captain in the Massachusetts militia during the Revolution, serving in Bridgewater, Braintree and Newport, Rhode Island. Lucy Eaton was a direct descendant of Pilgrims Frances Eaton and John Alden, and at the age of seventeen she married Captain Pollycarpus Edson and together raised five children. These early portraits survive among only thirty- three known portraits by Rufus Hathaway. R UFUS H ATHAWAY (1770-1822)