James Frothingham

James Frothingham (1786-1864) "Chester Harding (1792–1866)" (biography), Worcester Art, webpage: [http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/harding/biography/index.html WorcArt-Harding] .] "Boston Painters and Paintings" (article), "The Atlantic Monthly", Volume 62, Issue 370, August 1888, p. 258, LOC webpage: [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncps:@field(DOCID+@lit(ABK2934-0062-30)):: LOC-AMonthly-Boston] (notes Samuel Dexter portrait flesh tone; has Dunlap & Gilbert Stuart quote: "No man in Boston but myself can paint so good a head.").] was an American portrait painter in Massachusetts and New York.

Life and work

James Frothingham was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the Boston area, he studied as a student of Gilbert Stuart, becoming a portraitist of talent, and Stuart is quoted as having said of one of Frothingham's head portraits, "No man in Boston but myself can paint so good a head." Frothingham was greatly helped by Gilbert Stuart's criticisms and encouragement, although initially his Nestor had advised him to adopt another, less precarious means of earning a livelihood. There is a detailed portrait of Samuel Dexter, by Frothingham, in the Harvard Memorial Hall, in which Dexter, wearing a white wig and a red cloak atop a black coat, holds a book in his hand, and appears lost in meditation. The flesh coloring in the painting is rather dry and parchment-like, but overall, the color is harmonious. Dunlap noted that heads depicted by James Frothingham were painted with great truth, freedom, and excellence.

Frothingham would have been a local competitor to the younger Chester Harding (1792–1866), but in 1826, James Frothingham moved to Brooklyn in New York City.

ee also

* Francis Alexander (1800–1880) - American painter who moved to Boston.
* John Burgum - ornamental painter, co-worker.
* John Coles (1776/1780-1854) - portrait/heraldic painter, friend of James Frothingham, also studied under Gilbert Stuart.

Notes

References

* "Chester Harding (1792–1866)" (biography), Worcester Art, webpage: [http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/harding/biography/index.html WorcArt-Harding] .
* "Boston Painters and Paintings" (old article), "The Atlantic Monthly", Volume 62, Issue 370, August 1888, LOC webpage: [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncps:@field(DOCID+@lit(ABK2934-0062-30)):: LOC-AMonthly-Boston] .