拍品专文
This double portrait of David and Elizabeth Stone Coffin originally hung in their Newburyport, Massachusetts home with the portraits of two of their five sons, Nathaniel Stone Coffin and Isaac Stone Coffin, also painted by itinerant artist William Jennys (active 1793-1807). Previously unaccounted for in works about Jennys' career, the portraits of David and Elizabeth Coffin descended directly in the Coffin family. (For information on Jennys' Newbury and Newburyport portraits and those of Isaac and Nathaniel Coffin, see Benes, Old Town and Waterside (Newburyport, 19 ), p. 95, 102).
Major David Coffin (1763-1838) was a sixth generation descendant of Tristram Coffin, one of the original settlers of Newbury, Massachusetts in 1638. Founded in 1635 along the Merrimack River, Newbury encompassed the territory which later comprised Newburyport and West Newbury. Dividing from Newbury in 1764, Newburyport was the wealthiest and most densely populated town in Massachusetts, supporting active ship building, fsihing and trading activities as a port of call for Caribbean and coastal imports and exports. David Coffin, referred to in documents as Esquire, was one of the entrepreneurs involved in mercantile pursuits. A ship and store owner, Coffin advertised the sale of imported Virginia coal at his shop on Federal Street which he brought to Newburyport as cargo on his vessels, two of which French privateers captured during the war between France and England in 1798. In 1806-07 Coffin was part of a committee responsible for overseeing the building of a turnpike between Newburyport and Plum Island on which a resort hotel was erected; as a successful businessman, Coffin may well have used this newly available island as a retreat with his family and their cultural enclave. (See Benes, p. 16; Massachusetts State Archives, Estate of David Coffin, Jr., Docket 5736, December 5, 1815, Currier, History of Newburyport, Massachusetts (Newburyport, 1906), pp. 27, 238-40, 378.)
As an active colonial center, Newburyport attracted artisans and craftsmen to its shores. One of two known itinerant artists present in Newburyport in the first decade of the nineteenth century, William Jennys (?) painted nearly a dozen portraits of upper portraits of upper middle class residents. Working his way from Milford, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, Jennys was painting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and in Newburyport by the first decade of the nineteenth century. A signed 1807 bill of sale for the portrait of James Clarkson, charging $25 for the portrait and $4 for the frame, place Jennys in Newburyport at this time (Antiques (March 1986):520).
Known for his skillfully rendered realistic impressions that capture the hardened edge of his staunch New England sitters, Jennys was an accomplished artist whose works hover between the category of folk and fine art. Favoring 30 inch by 25 inch canvases, Jennys characteristically placed his patrons before an olive brown ground illuminated by a single light souce often streaming in from one side. The portraits of David and Elizabeth Coffin are painted with a book and sewing kit respectively, the articles and signals of education and standing within a society; in fact the lace collar and trim outfitting Elizabeth may well be the product of her skills learned as a young lady in one of the finer finishing schools centered in the Newburyport area. (See Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, American Folk Portraits (Boston, 1981), pp. 128-132.)
Major David Coffin (1763-1838) was a sixth generation descendant of Tristram Coffin, one of the original settlers of Newbury, Massachusetts in 1638. Founded in 1635 along the Merrimack River, Newbury encompassed the territory which later comprised Newburyport and West Newbury. Dividing from Newbury in 1764, Newburyport was the wealthiest and most densely populated town in Massachusetts, supporting active ship building, fsihing and trading activities as a port of call for Caribbean and coastal imports and exports. David Coffin, referred to in documents as Esquire, was one of the entrepreneurs involved in mercantile pursuits. A ship and store owner, Coffin advertised the sale of imported Virginia coal at his shop on Federal Street which he brought to Newburyport as cargo on his vessels, two of which French privateers captured during the war between France and England in 1798. In 1806-07 Coffin was part of a committee responsible for overseeing the building of a turnpike between Newburyport and Plum Island on which a resort hotel was erected; as a successful businessman, Coffin may well have used this newly available island as a retreat with his family and their cultural enclave. (See Benes, p. 16; Massachusetts State Archives, Estate of David Coffin, Jr., Docket 5736, December 5, 1815, Currier, History of Newburyport, Massachusetts (Newburyport, 1906), pp. 27, 238-40, 378.)
As an active colonial center, Newburyport attracted artisans and craftsmen to its shores. One of two known itinerant artists present in Newburyport in the first decade of the nineteenth century, William Jennys (?) painted nearly a dozen portraits of upper portraits of upper middle class residents. Working his way from Milford, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, Jennys was painting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and in Newburyport by the first decade of the nineteenth century. A signed 1807 bill of sale for the portrait of James Clarkson, charging $25 for the portrait and $4 for the frame, place Jennys in Newburyport at this time (Antiques (March 1986):520).
Known for his skillfully rendered realistic impressions that capture the hardened edge of his staunch New England sitters, Jennys was an accomplished artist whose works hover between the category of folk and fine art. Favoring 30 inch by 25 inch canvases, Jennys characteristically placed his patrons before an olive brown ground illuminated by a single light souce often streaming in from one side. The portraits of David and Elizabeth Coffin are painted with a book and sewing kit respectively, the articles and signals of education and standing within a society; in fact the lace collar and trim outfitting Elizabeth may well be the product of her skills learned as a young lady in one of the finer finishing schools centered in the Newburyport area. (See Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, American Folk Portraits (Boston, 1981), pp. 128-132.)