Justus DaLee (New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, 1793-1878) Portrait of a Baby Seated on Pillow Holding a Rattle.

Description:

Justus DaLee (New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, 1793-1878)

Portrait of a Baby Seated on Pillow Holding a Rattle. Unsigned. Watercolor, graphite, and ink on card, full-length profile portrait, 3 1/4 x 2 3/4 in., in a period molded red-painted wooden frame. Condition: Minor toning.

Provenance: Don Walters.

Note: Justus DaLee was a musician in the War of 1812, a husband and father of ten children, and had a twenty-one year artistic career as an itinerant painter of portrait miniatures, producing elaborate calligraphic family records for his clientele. Publications referring to his work indicate that he was working in the Albany, New York, area by the 1830s, and was in Rochester, New York in 1840, traveling to Massachusetts and then to Ohio in search of work. His last listing as a portrait painter was in 1847 in Buffalo, New York. He advertised himself as the "Side Portrait Painter," often painting the sitter's head in profile and the body in a full frontal view. While his drawing of ears has been considered stylized, his details of costume, hairstyle, features, and jewelry are very detailed, as may be seen in this lot.
Estimate $6,000-8,000

not laid down.

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