Portraits and landscapes were pillars of Euro-American art throughout the nineteenth century, and here the two genres come together in the trappings of a young artist at work. Busts of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin flank the painter at his easel, offering a distinctly American twist on the European practice of artists copying classical Greek and Roman sculptures. A painting-within-a-painting depicts a scenic view, while a portfolio and book of landscape models rest on the floor. These provide glimpses of the types of open spaces that attracted Euro-American settlement of the North American continent. With civic values represented by the Founding Fathers and wide open land on the easel and floor, this work connects art and art making directly to the aims of a new nation.
The painting has been attributed to the artist Randall Palmer based largely on its style. Palmer advertised his portrait painting business in local newspapers in New York State, announcing that “R. Palmer, would say to the Ladies and Gentlemen of Auburn and its vicinity, that he would be happy to wait upon them in the line of his profession . . . As to his ability as an artist, he would leave it with connoisseurs to decide” (Auburn Journal and Advertiser, July 3, 1839, 1). Palmer was also an early adopter of the daguerreotype, advertising his photography studio in 1841 and stating that he “has succeeded in taking by the above power some beautiful landscape views” (Goodrich, 169). He taught painting to at least one young student, the artist Russell Palmer (it is not known if they were related), who wrote to his family about studying painting with the artist for several weeks in 1839. Given Russell Palmer’s eventual interest in landscape painting, it is intriguing to wonder if he is the young artist at work in this painting.
Selected Bibliography
Bailly, Austen Barron, and Sandra Benito Vélez, eds. LACMA, Obras Maestras, 1750−1950: Pintura Estadounidense del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Ángeles. Museo Nacional de Arte, 2006.
Goodrich, Laurence B. “Randall Palmer (1807−1845) Artist of Seneca Falls and Auburn, New York.” New York History 45, no. 2 (1964): 161–74.
Miller, Richard, Avis Berman, and Cynthia G. Falk, et al. A Shared Legacy: Folk Art in America. Skira Rizzoli and Art Services International, 2014.
Selected Exhibition History
George Washington: A National Treasure, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, December 2003−April 2004.
LACMA Masterworks 1750–1950: American Painting from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA: Obras Maestras 1750–1950: Pintura Estadounidense del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Angeles), October 2006−May 2007.
