|
|
Ad Code: 4
|
from Auction House Records.
Two Children from the Prescott Family
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
|
|
Biography from AskART:
| An itinerant, collaborative portrait painter with her husband, Ruth
Shute was born in Dover, New Hampshire, and was married in 1827 to
artist Samuel Addison Shute, a doctor and portrait painter. They
settled in Weare, New Hampshire but traveled widely to paint
portraits. They would advertise in local papers that they were
available for portrait painting and stay as long as the commissions
lasted.
In 1833, in Peterborough, New Hampshire, they finished
eighteen portraits in thirty-one days. About twenty-five
portraits are extant from the early painting period of 1827 to 1831,
fifteen by him and ten by Ruth.
The earliest signed portrait
by both of them was for the Atkinson family in Lowell, Massachusetts,
and it is dated 1831. They combined media in their portraits,
using watercolor, pencil, gouache, pastel and gilt-foil.
After her husband's death in 1836, she returned to New Hampshire where
she continued to travel and paint. She remarried and moved to
Kentucky where she lived from 1840 to her death in 1882. Her last
found portrait is dated 1839.
Her work was somewhat abstract,
suggestive of 20th century expressionism, and both she and her husband
seemed willing to experiment with techniques and styles. Some of
their backgrounds were vigorous, monochromatic stripes, and sometimes
they incorporated metal foil and glazes of gum arabic. She used a
lot of pencil shading around the facial features, and her subjects
invariably had very small hands whereas her husband painted large hands
and did little eye shading.
Source:
American Women Artists by Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|