Existing comment:
John Brewster, Jr.
Portrait of a Lady, 1828
Brewster, born deaf, was one of early-19th-century America's most prolific itinerant portraitists. Raised in an elite Connecticut family of Puritan background, he traveled throughout New England in search of commissions, painting primarily in Maine, his home base. This incisive portrait of a young woman, signed and dated by the artist, reveals the fine brushwork and intense characterization for which he is known. Some scholars have ascribed the near-photographic quality of Brewster's work to his disability -- the lack of audible communication with sitters endowing him with a special sensitivity for capturing personality. |