H. G. Fetter (American/Boston, active Mid-19th Century)
Sale 1313 - The Donald F. Moylan, M.D. Collection of American Furniture, Folk & Decorative Arts, Part II
Mar 14, 2024
10:00AM ET
Live / Cincinnati
Estimate
$400 -
$600
Sold for $603
Sold prices are inclusive of Buyer’s Premium
Lot Description
H. G. Fetter (American/Boston, active Mid-19th Century)
Portrait of a Gentleman, Possibly Thaddeus Mason Harris
pastel on paper
signed and dated Copy by H.G. Fetter 1848, lower right
inscribed Thaddeus Mason Harris / Painted by Mr. Fetter from a / Daguerreotype
7 1/2 x 6 inches.
Thaddeus Mason Harris (1768-1842) was a Harvard librarian, Unitarian minister, and author in Boston, Massachusetts. Harris married Mary Dix (1776-1852) in 1795, and they had eight children, including Thaddeus William Harris (1795-1856), a physician and naturalist who also served as librarian at Harvard from 1831 until his death, during which he developed their university's library system. The artist, H. G. Fetter, is recorded as a daguerreotypist active in Pennsylvania during the early 1850s.
The daguerreotype process was pioneered in 1839 and became widely used in the 1840s and 1850s, a timeline slightly at odds with the age of the man depicted here. If this drawing was executed after a daguerreotype portrait, it is more likely that the sitter is the younger Thaddeus Harris.
It is very rare to find a documented portrait based on a known daguerreotype of the sitter.
pastel on paper
signed and dated Copy by H.G. Fetter 1848, lower right
inscribed Thaddeus Mason Harris / Painted by Mr. Fetter from a / Daguerreotype
7 1/2 x 6 inches.
Thaddeus Mason Harris (1768-1842) was a Harvard librarian, Unitarian minister, and author in Boston, Massachusetts. Harris married Mary Dix (1776-1852) in 1795, and they had eight children, including Thaddeus William Harris (1795-1856), a physician and naturalist who also served as librarian at Harvard from 1831 until his death, during which he developed their university's library system. The artist, H. G. Fetter, is recorded as a daguerreotypist active in Pennsylvania during the early 1850s.
The daguerreotype process was pioneered in 1839 and became widely used in the 1840s and 1850s, a timeline slightly at odds with the age of the man depicted here. If this drawing was executed after a daguerreotype portrait, it is more likely that the sitter is the younger Thaddeus Harris.
It is very rare to find a documented portrait based on a known daguerreotype of the sitter.
Condition Report
Framed: 10 x 8 1/2 inches.
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