Attributed to Joseph H. Davis (American, 1811-1865) Portrait of Lydia Ann Tasker.

Description:

Attributed to Joseph H. Davis (American, 1811-1865)

Portrait of Lydia Ann Tasker. Unsigned. Watercolor on paper, c. 1836 depicting a full-length profile portrait of the girl, wearing a black dress with puffy sleeves and white lace-edged neckline, a beaded necklace, and white apron with leaf border, in one hand she holds a book, the other holds a small purse. She is standing on a fanciful painted carpet flanked by her calico cat and a potted flowering plant. The calligraphic inscription below reads "Lydia Ann Tasker. Aged 9 years April 30th --," 8 3/4 x 7 in., in a later reeded wood frame. Condition: Repairs to corners and edges.

Provenance: Ex collections of Samaha, Milan, Ohio; Frank and Barbara Pollack, Chicago, Illinois; Barry Cohen, New York, David Schorsch/ Kate and Joel Kopp, America, Hurrah, New York City.

Literature: The Barry Cohen Collection, David Schorsch & America Hurrah, New York, 1990, pp.28-29. According to Schorsch & Kopp, Davis is known to have painted members of the Tasker family in 1836.
Estimate $10,000-15,000

paper repairs to all corners and along parts of the paper edges, a portion of the inscription is missing at l.r.

Joseph H. Davis was known as the "Left Hand Painter." He created watercolor portraits, more than one hundred silhouette-like portraits. He was in rural New Hampshire and Maine from 1832 to 1837 and New England from the 1820s-50s.

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