Description:
Pastel and pencil profile portrait of a middle-aged woman facing right, she has brown hair with side curls, her hair is covered by a sheer white cap with ruffled or lacey edges and a pompom on top, the cap is tied under her neck and also at the bottom of her hair, there is a suggestion of wrinkles on her forehead, she is dressed with a white ruffled fishu or collar and a black dress, in the background are green trees, the rest of the background has been colored with light blue pastel crayon, Below the printed paper label, there is a pencil inscription on the backboard which reads: "Content Chamberlain/ Died June 21, 1862 aged 74/ wife of Eliezur Chamberlain." According to her tombstone - Content died on June 27, 1861 at the age of 73. In the lower left hand corner, there is an ink inscription which reads "April 1857/Aged 92" and perhaps "Cont Pickerill ?." Sellers say there is another inscription on the reverse of the paper portrait: “Sketched February 1837 by Mrs. R. H. Bascom.” Pastel has a simple wooden frame, likely original.
Label Text:
Content Pickett Chamberlain was born on January 10, 1788, in Greenfield, Massachusetts, to Samuel
Pickett (1760–1841) and Mary Corse (1764–1838). She married Elizur Chamberlain (1787–1857) on
October 11, 1807, with whom she had one child, Mary M. Chamberlain (1808–1878). Elizur is
recorded as a shoemaker in the 1850 and 1855 census data, employed in the footwear industry.
(According to the Bernardston Town History, Elizur Chamberlain and Izatus Sheldon owned a leather
tannery together and leather shoe shops separately. Most of their leather shoes were sold in the
distant South.) Content passed away on June 27, 1861, at the age of seventy-three and is buried in
Center Cemetery in Bernardston, Massachusetts.
Ruth Henshaw was born in Leicester, Massachusetts, in 1772. After her marriage to the Reverend
Ezekiel Bascom, she lived in the central Massachusetts towns of Phillipston and Ashby. “Aunt Ruth,”
as she was affectionately known to family and friends, was a seamstress and milliner as well as a
portraitist, creating life-size profile portraits using scissors, pastels, and watercolors. Her husband
was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts. He had relatives in Greenfield and in neighboring
Bernardston and Gill, providing a wide circle of patrons for his wife’s portrait work. Between 1819 and
1848, Ruth Henshaw Bascom traveled throughout New England, creating over one thousand
portraits. In her diary, Bascom made reference to more than 1,400 portraits, of which 185 to 215 are
known to exist. She made most of her pastel crayon portraits when she lived in Gill, Massachusetts,
in the 1830s. Bascom sometimes received no payment for her portraits when they were gifts or
people could not afford to pay. Other times, she accepted barter or received a payment of $1 to $3,
depending upon the quality of the frame. In the early 1830s, Rev. Bascom’s health began to decline, spending 9 months of each year in Savannah, Georgia. During his winter absences Ruth Bascom often visited with friends and extended family. In her renowned journal, held in the collections of the American Antiquarian Society, Bascom makes numerous references to members of the Chamberlain and Pickett families of Bernardston. Bascom commenced work on Content Pickett Chamberlain’s portrait on January 26,
1837, during a particularly cold day, noting, “Miss M. Chamberlain spent the evening here — began
Mrs. Chamberlain.” She recorded further progress on February 7, describing the weather as “warm,
calm, and misty,” and remarked, “painted on Mrs. Chamberlain.” (Bascom also created portraits of
Jonathan Allen, Esq., Betsy Bascom Allen, and Paul Jones Allen owned by the Cushman Library in
Bernardston and the Rev. Timothy Rodgers and Mrs. Mary (Pierce) Rodgers owned by the
Bernardston Unitarian Church.)
Link to share this object record:
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