Possibly by the Pollard painter of Boston, Massachusetts, Portrait of Anne Pattershall.

Description:

Possibly by the Pollard painter of Boston, Massachusetts,

Portrait of Anne Pattershall. Unsigned. Circa 1720, Oil on canvas, the frontal view of the of the seated young woman who is surrounded by spandrels includes modeling which elongates her nose and face as well as her neckline and outstretched fingers, she wears a crimson-colored dress and holds a sprig of flowers in her fingers, an extension of her angled form in the foreground. 30 x 25 1/8 in. in a replaced molded gilt-lines painted wooden frame. Condition: good, re-lined, minor overpaint, fading to crimson.

Literature: New England Begins the Seventeenth Century, Vol. 3 by J. Fairbanks and R. Trent, Museum of Fines Arts Boston, 1982, fig. 449, pp. 475-476, the portrait of Anne Pollard from the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston has many stylistic and artistic technique similarities to this lot. They include the use of spandrels surrounding the symetrically presented figure, modeling which elongates, affecting the face, nose, neckline, and arm and fingers. The art conservator's report indicated the paint is moderately thin with no impaint. Anne Pollard is thinly painted.
p. 419 figure 51 depicts Captain Richard Pattershall, Boston, c. 1679, attributed to Thomas Smith. This is Anne Pattershall's father. p. 471-472, fig.446 refers to a 1679 portrait of Mrs. Pattershall and child, which is listed as having "a probable descent through William Thomas, Joshua Thomas (1751-1821) who gave it to Hannah E. Stevens, a relative of Joshua Thomas' wife Isabella. The portrait descended to its present owner through the Stevenson family." This is the same line of descent as this lot depicting Anne Pattershall. "The pendant portrait of Capt. Pattershall exists in a private collection where it was badly damages." This private collection referred to in the text is the consignor's family.
Genealogy: William Thomas (1671-) married Anne in 1701. She was the widow of John Breck and daughter of Richard Pattershall and had William 1718, Anne 1720, Anne again 1721 according to A History of Plymouth Countyby William Davis. Family ownership continued from William Thomas (1718- ) to son Joshua (1751-1827) to Hannah Stevenson, a relative of Joshua Thomas' wife, Isabella to Hannah Stevenson Thomas (1821-1900) to Charles Davis Stevenson Davis (1858-) who married Lydia Russell (1863-1910). to Charles Stevenson Davis (1888-1916) and thence to the consignor. A copy of the family's ancestry chart accompanies this lot.

Provenance: Family descent as detailed above. For the last fifty years this "Portrait of a Member of the Pattershall (Padishal) family" hung in the "Antiquarian House," formerly known as the Hedge House Museum and subsequently known as the Plymouth Antiquarian Society, 126 Water St., Plymouth, Mass. A copy of the photo of this portrait hanging in the Antiquarian Society's dining room accompanies this lot.
Estimate $30,000-50,000

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