$18,800
Zedekiah Belknap (1781-1858) Early Portrait of Francis Elizabeth Swift (nee Chase), (1817-1903). Falmouth's Poetess "Fanny Fales." Unsigned. Oil on panel, c. 1824, 11 3/4 x 9 1/2 in., in original molded wood frame. Condition: Superfluous gold paint u.r. edge, minor paint loss. Provenance: By family descent. Note: Frances Elizabeth (Chase) Swift was born in the little village of Rockingham, Windham County, Vermont, one of six children, and subsequently moved to Charleston, New Hampshire. Quoting from her autobiography: "In a chamber of the cottage an easel was one day set up and our portraits were painted by a traveling artist by the name of Belknap. Henry (her brother) was tied in a chair to keep him quiet. They were not bad likenesses, taken on board, but the poor man was fond of his cups and saw red and blue devils while he was painting." They moved to Warren, Rhode Island, and after five years there, to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where her father went into a medical partnership with Dr. William Wells. In New Bedford she became engaged to George Washington Swift (1819-1894). They married there January 6, 1841, and thereafter took her bridal trip by packet to Falmouth, Massachusetts, where she lived with her husband and two children until he died in 1894 and she in 1903 at age 86. She began writing poetry at age nine and her first published verses were in the Warren, Rhode Island, Star. In the ensuing years she wrote poetry and was published in the Home Magazine, Read more…
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2006-11-04
