Bass Otis (July 17, 1784 - November 3, 1861), was an early American artist, inventor, and portrait painter. He painted hundreds of portraits including many of the best known Americans of his day, and produced the first American lithograph in 1819. [1]
Otis was born in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, the son of Josiah Otis, a physician, and Susanna Orr. As a youth, he may have been apprenticed to a scythe maker, perhaps to a relative. Later he worked as a coach painter, then studied with Gilbert Stuart in Boston about 1805-1808. Otis then moved to New York City, perhaps working as an assistant to painter John Wesley Jarvis. When he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1812, his painting career flourished. He was elected to the Society of Artists of the United States in 1812, and eight of his portraits were included in the combined exhibition of the Society of Artists and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He was elected an academician in the Pennsylvania Academy in 1824. One of Otis's most famous early works showed a scene inside a metalworking shop, probably a reflection of his years as an apprentice. In 1813 he married Alice Pierie of Philadelphia, and they had six children. [ citation needed ]
East Bridgewater is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,794 at the 2010 census.
Gilbert Charles Stuart was an American painter from Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best known work is the unfinished portrait of George Washington, begun in 1796, that is sometimes referred to as the Athenaeum Portrait. Stuart retained the portrait and used it to paint scores of copies that were commissioned by patrons in America and abroad. The image of George Washington featured in the painting has appeared on the United States one-dollar bill for more than a century and on various postage stamps of the 19th century and early 20th century.
John Wesley Jarvis was an American painter.
Otis patented the perspective protractor in 1815. With Philadelphia publisher Joseph Delaplaine he began painting portraits for “Delaplaine's Repository of the Lives and Portraits of Distinguished American Characters.” In 1816 Otis painted portraits of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Dolley Madison. In total, Otis painted twenty-four portraits for the “Repository,” though only the Jefferson portrait was published before the end of the project in 1818. Some of the remaining portraits were exhibited in Delaplaine’s Philadelphia gallery, which became part of Rubens Peale's New York museum. Otis produced the first American lithograph, which was published in the July 1819 issue of Analectic Magazine , together with an article on the lithographic process. [2]
Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Previously, he had served as the second vice president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. The principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, motivating American colonists to break from the Kingdom of Great Britain and form a new nation; he produced formative documents and decisions at both the state and national level.
James Madison Jr. was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, philosopher and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. He is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the Constitution of the United States and the United States Bill of Rights. He co-wrote The Federalist Papers, co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party, and served as the fifth United States secretary of State from 1801 to 1809.
Dolley Todd Madison was the wife of James Madison, President of the United States from 1809 to 1817. She was noted for holding Washington social functions in which she invited members of both political parties, essentially spearheading the concept of bipartisan cooperation, albeit before that term was in use, in the United States. While previously, founders such as Thomas Jefferson would only meet with members of one party at a time, and politics could often be a violent affair resulting in physical altercations and even duels, Madison helped to create the idea that members of each party could amicably socialize, network, and negotiate with each other without resulting in violence. By innovating political institutions as the wife of James Madison, Dolley Madison did much to define the role of the President's spouse, known only much later by the title First Lady—a function she had sometimes performed earlier for the widowed Thomas Jefferson. Consequently, she is the only woman to have functioned as U.S. presidential First Lady for two different administrations.
Otis's notebooks for 1819-26 record over 300 portraits painted, including portraits of artist John Neagle, the Reverend Shepard Kosciusko Kollock, Victor Marie du Pont, John Greenleaf Whittier, Senator John C. Fremont, and the Reverend James Abercrombie. He painted a famous postmortem portrait of Philadelphia financier Stephen Girard. Other well-known sitters included author James Fenimore Cooper, Thomas Garrett, and U.S. President William Henry Harrison.
John Neagle was a fashionable American painter, primarily of portraits, during the first half of the 19th century in Philadelphia.
Victor Marie du Pont de Nemours was a French American diplomat, politician and businessman. He was a member of the Delaware General Assembly, the founder of the Du Pont, Bauduy & Co., wool manufacturers, and brother of Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, the founder of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company.
John Greenleaf Whittier was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the Fireside Poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Whittier is remembered particularly for his anti-slavery writings as well as his book Snow-Bound.
He worked mainly in Philadelphia, but also worked in Boston (1837, 1846–58) and in Wilmington, Delaware (1839, 1840s) and in Providence, Rhode Island (1858–61). His students included Henry Inman, Peter F. Rothermel and John Neagle.
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the state of Rhode Island and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. It was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He named the area in honor of "God's merciful Providence" which he believed was responsible for revealing such a haven for him and his followers. The city is situated at the mouth of the Providence River at the head of Narragansett Bay.
Henry Inman was an American portrait, genre, and landscape painter.
Peter Frederick Rothermel was an American painter.
Thomas Sully was an American portrait painter. Born in Great Britain, he lived most of his life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He painted in the style of Thomas Lawrence. His subjects included national political leaders, such as presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams, and General Marquis de Lafayette, and many leading musicians and composers.
Samuel Bell Waugh was a 19th-century American portrait, landscape, and moving panorama painter. His portrait subjects included President Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.
William Strickland, was a noted architect and civil engineer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Nashville, Tennessee. A student of Benjamin Latrobe and mentor to Thomas Ustick Walter, Strickland helped establish the Greek Revival movement in the United States. A pioneering engineer, he wrote a seminal book on railroad construction, helped build several early American railroads, and designed the first ocean breakwater in the Western Hemisphere.
Alvan Fisher was one of the United States's pioneers in landscape painting and genre works.
Dr. John McKinly was an American physician and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He was a veteran of the French and Indian War, served in the Delaware General Assembly, was the first elected President of Delaware, and for a time was a member of the Federalist Party.
Samuel Worcester Rowse was an American illustrator, lithographer, and painter. He was most famous for his drawings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Rowse is also well known for his lithograph, The Resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia.
Dr. Henry Molleston, III was an American physician and politician from Dover, in Kent County, Delaware. He was a member of the Federalist Party, who served in the Delaware General Assembly, and was elected Governor of Delaware, but died before taking office.
James Madison Broom was an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington, in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a member of the Federalist Party, who served as U. S. Representative from Delaware.
Gustavus Hesselius was a Swedish-American painter.
Jacob Eichholtz (1776–1842) was an early American painter, known primarily for his portraits in the Romantic Victorian tradition. Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in a family of prosperous Pennsylvania Germans, he spent most of his professional life in Philadelphia. A coppersmith by trade, he turned to painting and achieved both recognition and success despite being mainly self-taught as an artist. He is known to have painted over 800 portraits over the course of 35 years. Hundreds of his works are housed in art museums, historical societies, and private collections throughout the United States.
Pendleton's Lithography (1825–1836) was a lithographic print studio in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts, established by brothers William S. Pendleton (1795-1879) and John B. Pendleton (1798-1866). Though relatively short-lived, in its time the firm was prolific, printing portraits, landscape views, sheet music covers, and numerous other illustrations. The Pendleton's work might be characterized by its generosity—each print contains a maxima of visual information designed for graphic reproduction.
John Nelson Shanks was an American artist and painter. His best known work is probably his portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales, completed in 1996. The painting was first shown at Hirschl & Adler Gallery in New York City, April 24 to June 28, 1996.
Frank Benton Ashley Linton was an American portrait-painter and teacher. He was a student of Thomas Eakins, studied the École des Beaux-Arts, and won a bronze medal at the 1927 Salon Nationale in Paris. Likely a closeted gay man, he lived with pianist Samuel Meyers for more than thirty years.
Robert Field (1769–1819) was a painter who was born in London, England, and died in Kingston, Jamaica. According to art historian Daphne Foskett, author of A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters (1972), Field was "one of the best American miniaturists of his time." During Field's time in Nova Scotia at the beginning of the nineteenth century, he was the most professionally trained painter in present-day Canada. He worked in the conventional neo-classic portrait style of Henry Raeburn and Gilbert Stuart. His most famous works are two groups of miniatures of George Washington, commissioned by his wife Martha Washington.
Albert Newsam was an American artist. Born deaf and based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he created paintings and drawings, including portraits.
Edward Lionel Loper Sr. was an African American artist and teacher from Delaware, best known for his vibrant palette and juxtaposition of colors. He taught painting for almost 70 years.
Patrick Lyon was a Scottish-born American blacksmith, mechanic and inventor. Following his wrongful imprisonment for a 1798 bank robbery, he wrote a narrative describing his mistreatment, won a large legal settlement, and became a working class hero. A self-made businessman, he designed and built hand-pumped fire engines.
