Description:
Oil portrait of Charles Barnard (1781-1868) by Chester Harding (1792-1866), which descended in the Hedrick family from his daughter, Anne Middleton Barnard Davis (1821-1927) of Winchester, Virginia; to her daughter, Eleanor Barnard Conrad Carson (1886-1950) of Winchester; to her daughter, Susan Davis Carson Hedrick (1909-1987). Charles Barnard was the son of Samuel Barnard (1746-1819) and Abigail Upham Barnard (4 Jan. 1745/46-1826) who moved the family from the Manse on Main Street, Deerfield, to Montgomery, Vermont, in 1795 after financial difficulties. Charles Barnard became a very successful merchant in Boston and had a house in Milton, Mass., similar in architecture to the Manse in Deerfield, which is now known as the Upton House of Milton Academy. Harding was the son of Abiel and Olive Smith Harding of Deerfield who moved the family to western New York state in 1810. After 1812, Harding worked at farming, house painting, and furniture making in New York state, sign painting in Pittsburg, PA, and around 1817, portrait painting in Kentucky where he was immediately successful. After periods in Missouri, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia, Harding moved to Boston in 1822; wanting to study abroad, he painted portraits in England and Scotland and spent some time in Ireland and France from 1823-1826. By 1830, he and his family settled in Springfield, Mass., but he maintained a studio in Boston and continued to travel for work, painting in Albany, Baltimore, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Richmond, St. Louis and Washington, DC. The half-length portrait shows a middle-aged man with a ruddy, clean-shaven face, slightly receding hairline, and wearing a black frock coat, stock and cravat, who is facing to his right sitting in a red-upholstered armchair against a dark background. Also see painting of Asher Benjamin attributed to Chester Harding, HD 81.002.
Tags:
portraits Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+73.113 |
