Hetty Benbridge

Last updated

Hetty Benbridge (died 1776) (also known as Esther Benbridge, Hetty Sage, or Letticia Benbridge) was an American painter of miniature portraits. [1]

Contents

Biography

Esther "Hetty" Benbridge (née Sage) was from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She studied with painter Charles Willson Peale. [1] Peale's influence can be seen in the long oval faces of her portrait subjects. [2]

She married fellow portrait painter Henry Benbridge in early 1772 and they had one son, also named Henry, who was born on December 13, 1772. [3] In April 1773 she moved with her mother and the baby to join her husband in Charleston, South Carolina, where he had established a portrait studio. She was mentioned in the April 5 edition of the South Carolina Gazette as "a very ingenious Miniature Paintress" who had arrived that week from Philadelphia. [1] Hetty Benbridge is thought to have died in 1776. [4]

There are ten extant miniatures attributed to her, although none of the attributed paintings bear her signature. All are painted in watercolor on ivory and set in small gold lockets. [5] Eight of the portraits are of women, including eighteen-year-old Anne Wragg Ferguson, and one depicts a child. The tenth portrait is of a South Carolinian man, John Poage. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Willson Peale</span> American painter (1741–1827)

Charles Willson Peale was an American painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician, and naturalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rembrandt Peale</span> American artist and museum keeper (1778–1860)

Rembrandt Peale was an American artist and museum keeper. A prolific portrait painter, he was especially acclaimed for his likenesses of presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Peale's style was influenced by French neoclassicism after a stay in Paris in his early thirties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raphaelle Peale</span> Painter from the United States (1774–1825)

Raphaelle Peale is considered the first professional American painter of still-life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Peale</span> American painter

James Peale was an American painter, best known for his miniature and still life paintings, and a younger brother of noted painter Charles Willson Peale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Benbridge</span> American portrait painter (1743–1812)

Henry Benbridge was an early American portrait painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Claypoole Peale</span> American painter

Anna Claypoole Peale was an American painter who specialized in portrait miniatures on ivory and still lifes. She and her sister, Sarah Miriam Peale, were the first women elected academicians of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Roberts (painter)</span> American artist (died 1761)

Mary Roberts was an American miniaturist active in Charleston, South Carolina in the 1740s and 1750s. One of the earliest American miniaturists, and the first woman recorded as working in the medium in the American colonies, she is also believed to have painted the first watercolor-on-ivory miniature in the colonies.

Jeremiah Theus was a Swiss-born American painter, primarily of portraits. He was active mainly around Charleston, South Carolina, in which city he remained almost without competition for the bulk of his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Miriam Peale</span> Painter from the United States

Sarah Miriam Peale was an American portrait painter, considered the first American woman to succeed as a professional artist. One of a family of artists of whom her uncle Charles Willson Peale was the most illustrious, Sarah Peale painted portraits mainly of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. notables, politicians, and military figures. Lafayette sat for her four times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaretta Angelica Peale</span> American painter (1795–1882)

Margaretta Angelica Peale was an American painter, one of the Peale family of artists. The daughter of James Peale, she was the sister of Sarah, Anna, and Maria Peale. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was taught by her father, and painted primarily still lifes, some of which were copies of his work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Jane Peale</span> American painter

Mary Jane Peale was an American painter. She was the child of Rubens and Eliza Burd Patterson Peale, the only daughter among seven children, and was the granddaughter of Charles Willson Peale. She was among the last members of the Peale family to paint professionally, studying with her uncle Rembrandt and with Thomas Sully in Philadelphia, and was enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenny Eakin Delony</span> American painter

Jenny Eakin Delony, also known as Jenny Eakin Delony Rice and Jenny Meyrowitz, (1866–1949) was an American painter and educator. She specialized in portraits of notable and historic figures in the United States, but also made miniature, landscape, wildlife, still life, and genre paintings. She was the founder of collegiate art education in Arkansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Claypoole</span> American painter

James Claypoole, Sr. was an American portrait painter, house painter, and glazier. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph Claypoole (1677-1740/41) and his second wife Edith Ward Claypoole. He died in Philadelphia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anson Dickinson</span> American painter

Anson Dickinson was an American painter of miniature portraits who achieved fame during his lifetime, producing a very large number of works, but who is now largely forgotten.

Abraham Delanoy, Jr. was a portrait painter active in the colony of New York. He was a pupil of Benjamin West in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet Cany Peale</span> American painter

Harriet Christina Cany Peale was an American landscape, portrait, and genre painter of the mid-nineteenth century. Although sometimes described as a copyist, a greater share of her oeuvre has been made public in recent years, allowing Cany Peale to earn recognition for her genre and landscape paintings. She has been located in contemporary scholarship as an artist of the Hudson River School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Jane Simes</span> American painter

Mary Jane Simes was an American portrait painter who worked in both oils and painted miniatures. She was born in Baltimore in 1807 and died in 1872. Mary Jane Simes is a member of the Peale family, an important lineage of artists and cultural workers in 18th and 19th century America. She is a descendant of Charles Willson Peale, who established one of the first museums of art and natural history in the United States. Her aunts were Anna Claypoole Peale and Sarah Miriam Peale, who were known as miniaturists and oil painters, respectively. Simes lived with her aunt Sarah during a portion of her childhood. Her career as an exhibiting artist ended upon marriage to John Floyd Yeats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosalba Carriera Peale</span> American painter

Rosalba Carriera Peale was an American portraitist, landscape painter, and lithographer. She was the eldest daughter of artist Rembrandt Peale and granddaughter of Charles Willson Peale.

Mary Ramsden, née Symonds, was an English watercolour painter. In 1801, she travelled with her sister, Elizabeth Gwillim, and her sister's husband, Sir Henry Gwillim, to Madras, India. She resided in Madras until 1808, and during this time she produced a series of watercolours of local landscapes as well as a series of watercolours of Indian fish. Her letters are noteworthy for the insight they offer about life in early nineteenth-century Madras.

<i>Captain John Purves and His Wife</i> Painting by Henry Benbridge

Captain John Purves and His Wife, Eliza Anne Pritchard, is an oil-on-canvas portrait created by American painter Henry Benbridge (1743–1812). It was painted in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1775. A bequest from Henry Francis du Pont, the painting is held in the permanent collection of the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Rubinstein, Charlotte Striefer (1982). American Women Artists. Boston, MA: G.K. Hall & Co. p. 26.
  2. Appleby, Joyce; Chang, Eileen; Goodwin, Neva (2015-07-17). Encyclopedia of Women in American History. Routledge. ISBN   9781317471615.
  3. Stewart, Robert G.; Boswell, James (1970). "The Portraits of Henry Benbridge". American Art Journal. 2 (2): 58–71. doi:10.2307/1593897. JSTOR   1593897.
  4. Museum, Cincinnati Art; Aronson, Julie; Wieseman, Marjorie E. (2006). Perfect Likeness: European and American Portrait Miniatures from the Cincinnati Art Museum. Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0300115802.
  5. Rutledge, Anna Wells (1949). "Artists in the Life of Charleston. Through Colony and State from Restoration to Reconstruction". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 39 (2): 101–250. doi:10.2307/1005623. hdl: 2027/mdp.39015010991324 . JSTOR   1005623.