Painting
- Object Name:
- Painting
- Object ID:
- 2015.016.02
- Creator:
- Chandler, Joseph G. (1813-1884)
- Place of Origin:
- Somersworth, NH
- Date:
- 1860
- Description:
- Portrait of Sarah A. Bickford Andrews (1801-1883) of Somersworth, NH, by Joseph Goodhue Chandler (1813-1884). Oil on canvas. Half-length portrait of a woman in black dress with white lace collar, wearing beaded necklace, oval brooch, and red shawl around arms. Signed in red paint, "J.G. Chandler / 1860", in lower left corner. Gilded frame.
- Material:
- Textile
- Dimensions:
- H-30.1 W-25.1 inches
- Provenance:
- Artist Joseph G. Chandler probably painted the portraits of Elisha and Sarah Andrews while traveling through the seacoast area in 1860. Born in Berwick, Maine, Elisha Andrews and Sarah A. Bickford were married on March 16, 1828. During the 1840s the Andrews moved to Boston where he worked as a grocer and dry goods merchant. Sometime after 1855, the Andrews returned to live in Great Falls, Somersworth, where they resided until their deaths. The donor, Paulina J. Adams, is a descendant of Elisha and Sarah Andrews through her mother.
Joseph Goodhue Chandler was born October 8, 1813 in South Hadley, MA. He trained first as a cabinetmaker; later, at some time between the ages of 14 and 19, he traveled to Albany, NY, and studied painting with William Collins. His earliest known portraits date from 1837 and are mainly of family members. Following his father's death, he bought his brother's share of the family farm and supplemented his income by land management. Chandler married Lucretia Ann Waite (1820-1868), an established painter from Hubbardston, MA, in 1840. A descendant reported that Lucretia "finished up" her husband's paintings, and the two artists probably collaborated on several portraits. Soon after his marriage, Chandler began his career as an itinerant painter, traveling principally in northwestern Massachusetts until he established a studio in Boston in 1852. In 1860 the Chandlers returned to Hubbardston, where they spent the rest of their lives. Chandler died in 1884.
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