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Although a deaf-mute from birth, Brewster was a successful
itinerant portrait painter in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and
Missouri. Best known for his beguiling portraits of children,
Brewster also painted numerous adults with the same attention
to design and penetrating gazes.
Truly one of the most beloved of Folk Art painters, he was
the subject of an exhibition entitled, A Deaf Artist in Early
America: The Worlds of John Brewster, Jr., at the Fenimore Art
Museum in Cooperstown, NY in 2005, and at the American Folk Art
Museum in 2006. Brewster's paintings can be found in a dozen
major museums as well as in numerous prestigious collections
throughout the country.
The sitter bears a resemblance to Brewster's stepmother, Ruth
Avery Brewster, who is depicted in his double portrait in the
Old Sturbridge Village Collection, albeit considerably older.
(See Harlan Lane, A Deaf Artist in Early America: The Worlds
of John Brewster, Jr., plate 3.)
The portrait is housed in a mustard painted frame, highlighted
with daubs of red paint, which may be original to the picture.
It was deaccessioned by the Lyman Allen Museum in New London,
CN.
The painting has been re-lined and treated for paint losses
in the background. |
