Drawing

Title:

Stephen Smyth

Object Name:

Drawing

Object ID:

2020.018.01

Creator:

Moore, J. Bailey (1815-1893)Artist

Place of Origin:

Manchester, NH

Date:

circa 1846

Description:

Portrait of Stephen Smyth (1785-1866) of Candia and Manchester, NH, drawn by J. Bailey Moore (1815-1893). Pastel on paper mounted on cardboard. Painted and grained wood frame.

Material:

Paper

Dimensions:

H-28 W-21.4 inches

Provenance:

Artist J. Bailey Moore probably drew these portraits in Manchester in 1846. Stephen Smyth, son of James Chase Smyth and Abigail Sanborn, was a prosperous farmer in the town of Candia. He married Dorothy "Dolly" Rowe, the daughter of Isaiah Rowe and Sarah Healey, on December 26, 1809. They had six children, one of whom was Frederick Smyth, (1819-1899), mayor of Manchester, state legislator, and governor of New Hampshire during the Civil War. In 1840 the Smyths moved to Manchester, where they bought and worked a farm.

Jacob Bailey Moore (1815-1893), was the youngest child of Samuel and Olive (Rowe) Moore (1781-1869) of Candia. Olive Moore was an elder sister of Dorothy Rowe Smyth, the subject of one of the portraits. Moore worked on family farms and attended schools in Candia, Lowell, MA, and Pembroke. He then went on to Lynn and Boston, working in stores. While in Boston, Moore studied art and attended lectures on physical science, literature, and moral philosophy, becoming particularly interested in religions, including Catholicism, Protestantism, Swedenborgians, Transcendentalism, and free religions. Settling in Manchester during the early 1840s, Moore earned a living painting portraits, lecturing on natural philosophy and writing for newspapers. Beginning in 1860, he worked as an editor for the Daily American and the Union. He went on to work as a reporter and contributor to the Daily Mirror, Boston Herald, Boston Post, Patriot and the People of Concord, as well his hometown newspaper, the Candia Banner. According to a biography written by publisher George R. Browne as a preface for Moore's History of the Town of Candia…, Moore was "A devotee of art…an artist of acknowledged talent, and did in crayon and oil several meritorious works, including life-size portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Gen. Stark and Gen. Grant."

According to the donor, the portraits were purchased at a Smyth family estate auction by Ruth W. Higgins of Manchester in the 1940s. They next passed to Mrs. Higgins' niece, Mrs. Lansing Fulford of Baltimore, MD, in the 1960s. Mrs. Fulford gave them to her son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Katherine Fulford, of Denver, CO, c. 1980. Recognizing their historical and aesthetic importance, William W. Upton recently purchased the portraits from his first cousin, Katherine Fulford, for donation to the Society.

Credit Line:

Gift of William W. Upton

People:

Smyth, Stephen (1785-1866), Moore, J. Bailey (1815-1893)

Subjects:

Smyth, Stephen, Pastel drawings