This portrait of a man is half length, seated facing slightly to his right and is one of a pair. He is wearing h a black stock and white shirt, a black vest and coat with his right hand across his stomach, thumb inside the waistcoat. He has black hair and blue eyes, dark brows and a high forehead. A portion of a red chair is visible to his left. The portrait has a painted grain frame with gilding.
portraits
paintings (visual works)
oil paint (paint)
canvas
Painting
"Mementos: Jewelry of Life and Love from Historic New England": Although it may be hard to tell from their somber expressions and black clothing, this is a wedding portrait. Local woodcarver Aaron Burnham married Lucy Cogswell eighteen months after the death of his first wife. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, portraits of husbands and wives were often arranged to face one another when hung on a wall.
Incised on the lower stretcher bar is: Painted by A.J. Wiggin, Sept. 1849. In the upper left stretcher on the back, on a typewritten white label is: Portrait of Aaron L. Burnham, husband of Lucy Cogswell of Essex, Mass./Painted by A.J. Wiggin Sept.1849, at the/ time of his marriage. He was a widower and was recorded as a ""carver and gilder.""/ He was born in Essex, Feb.16, 1807./Purchased in Essex about 1935. An old stidker was removed from the upper left stretcher on the back. In black stencil on the back of the canvas, in the upper center is: GROW [illeg.] & C/LY/IHR/LONDON . In black stencil on the lower right of the canvas reads: From/J.J. Adams./99 Washington St./Boston .
Burnham, Aaron L., Mr., 1807
Original to Cogswell's Grant (Essex, Mass.),
1991.972
Wiggin, Alfred J. (Maker)
30 1/4 x 25 1/2 (HxW) (inches)
Gift of Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little
1991.972.1
1849 (September)
Massachusetts (United States)
Title Painting Accession Number 1991.972.2
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