Painting
- Title:
- Nancy Boardman Fletcher
- Object Name:
- Painting
- Object ID:
- 2017.015
- Creator:
- Harding, Chester (1792-1866)
Artist - Date:
- circa 1830
- Description:
- Portrait of Nancy Boardman Fletcher (1788-1842) of Concord, NH, by Chester Harding (1792-1866). Oil on canvas, c. 1830. Bust-length portrait of brown-haired woman in gray dress and white lace bonnet, seated in red chair. Framed.
- Material:
- Textile
- Dimensions:
- H-27.2 W-22 inches
- Provenance:
- Nancy Boardman Fletcher, the daughter of Colonel Amos and Mary (Lewis) Boardman was born in South Reading, MA, on February 5, 1788. She married Samuel Fletcher (1785-1858) of Concord, NH, educator and attorney, in July 1819. Mrs. Fletcher served as the treasurer of the New-Hampshire Center Institution and was President of the Concord Female Charitable Society. She also opened a "Ladies' School" in Concord in 1833.
The portrait descended to Elmira Minot Fletcher, great niece of Samuel and Nancy (Boardman) Fletcher. Her grandfather was Samuel's brother Nathan, and her father (Arthur) "read law" with his uncle Samuel. So, because Samuel and Nancy do not seem to have had any children, the painting passed down, probably through Arthur, to Elmira, who lived at 17 Rumford Street at the corner of Warren Street. She died in 1932, and Samuel, Nancy, and Almira, as well as other family members, are all buried in the Old North Cemetery in Concord. Contemporary political activist Dudley Webster Dudley related her husband's memory that the painting was next owned by his grandfather, Harry Hubbard Dudley, and later by Dudley Dudley's in-laws, Dr. Thomas M. and Dorothy Dudley, who lived in School Street in Concord. The portrait was purchased along with one of Samuel Fletcher from Dr. Dudley during the 1970s by Roberta Carr of Concord. The donor purchased the portrait from Carr in 1980.
Chester Harding was a popular Boston painter beginning in the 1820s, painting portraits of many of the prominent men and women of his time, including James Madison, James Monroe, Daniel Webster, John Quincy Adams, Daniel Boone, Chief Justice John Marshall, and Civil War Major General William T. Sherman. - Credit Line:
- Gift of Diana Korzenik, in honor of Donna-Belle Garvin
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