Edwin Plummer (1802-1880)

American, Lived/Active: Massachusetts, Maine
Pair of Portraits, William and Electa Stoddard Hale. Unsigned, ca. 1830. Oil on canvas. 33 ½” x 28 ½” (with frames).

Over-all in fine condition, both strip-lined with minor stretcher marks and minimal scattered in-painting. They appear to retain the original frames. Each with partial printed labels on verso, “Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art.” Provenance: Collection of Dr. Donald Moylan; Ex-collection, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, Pennsylvania.

Portrait of Electa purchased from Hirschl and Adler Gallery, New York City, New York; Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, Thomaston, Maine, 2017.
Exhibited: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, 1996.
Genealogical records confirm that Electa Stoddard Hale (1799-1876) was born in Upton, Massachusetts, and married William Hale (1795-1872) in the same town in 1819. According to state and federal census data, the Georgian-born William was a merchant by trade.

Edwin Plummer is one of the most recognizable portraitists of the American folk art genre although little is known about his life. Plummer was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts into an artistic family. His father invented a machine used to produce hair combs, which may explain the prominence of their inclusion in his work. By the mid 1820’s, Plummer had begun to travel to solicit patrons for his portrait painting although he never relied entirely on his art to support his livelihood. His obituary read, “he was a writer of some note, a lecturer on astronomy and history, a painter of no mean ability, which talent he employed for his own gratification and that of his personal friends.”

For additional information see Deborah M. Child’s Edwin Plummer and his Portrait Likenesses, Antiques and Fine Arts (Summer/Autumn 2011).