Frederick Kemmelmeyer (1752/53 - 1820/1825)

Jess Pavey;

Private Collection in Birmingham, Michigan;

Tim Hill;

Joan Brownstein and Peter Eaton, Delaware Antiques Show, 2002.

Leslie and Peter Warwick, Love At First Sight: Discovering Stories About Folk Art & Antiques Collected by Two Generations & Three Families, (New Jersey: 2022), pp. 239-40, fig. 410.

German-born artist Frederick Kemmelmeyer was a Hessian medical officer fighting for the British Army in the Revolutionary War, but deserted to support the American cause during the Battle of Trenton in 1776. Post-war, Kemmelmeyer was a self-taught artist who opened a drawing school for gentleman in Baltimore in 1788. Early in his career, he was known to create oil portraits, particularly of George Washington, but was later known to create pastel portraits between the years 1802 and 1816 when he was itinerant between Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland. Only eleven portraits can be firmly attributed to Kemmelmeyer, with six being signed, five being attributed and nine of those aforementioned being pastels. This portrait of a young blonde-haired boy is the only known 18th century pastel portrait that has been attributed to Kemmelmeyer.

The pastel portrait of James McSherry Coale, signed and dated by Kemmelmeyer March 27, 1811, referenced in E. Bryding Adams' article, “Frederick Kemmelmeyer, Maryland Itinerant Artist,” Pl. VII, p. 290, depicts the young boy around the age of six years-old similar to the subject portrait; seated diagonally but with upper body turned towards the viewer, holding eye contact and with a calm and blissful countenance. He has fine, wispy hair, and has a goldfinch perched on his right hand and a small dog propped on his lap. The young blonde-haired boy in the subject portrait has similar hair and has a white dove perched on his right hand and holds a sprig from a pussy-willow branch in his left hand. The portrait of a girl with strawberries attributed to Kemmelmeyer, Fig. 9, p. 292 of the same article, shows the child with the same favored props used by the artist: a bird in the right hand and a branch in the left.

The most unusual aspect of the subject work is the boy's costume. Costume experts Titi Halle and Michele Majer at Cora Ginsburg Inc. have both stated that the child's three-piece suit of double-breasted jacket, waistcoat, and breeches appear to be American made, circa late 1780s to early 1790s. Under his extravagant black wool polka-dotted jacket and breeches he wears a blue vest, a white shirt with a lace collar, a white sash, which was a European style with a short lifespan, donned by the children of wealthy Americans. Portraits of Mary Gibson Tilghman and her sons and a portrait of Peggy Sanderson Hughes and her daughter Louisa, both painted by Charles Wilson Peale in 1789 and currently in the collection of the Maryland Historical Society, show the children with similar sashes as the boy in the subject portrait. A third portrait of Alexander Hanson’s family by Robert Edge Pine, circa 1788, shows a boy with a similar sash. This early and particular costume indicates a possibility of the portrait being drawn circa 1790; however, the remaining elements of the work and similarities to the early 19th century portraits of children signed by Kemmelmeyer also indicate a possibility that the child was depicted circa 1805-10 and is simply wearing chic vintage attire. For more information on Frederick Kemmelmeyer, see E. Bryding Adams, “Frederick Kemmelmeyer, Maryland Itinerant Artist,” The Magazine ANTIQUES, vol. cxxv, no. 1 (January 1984): 284-292 as well as A. Nicholas Powers, "Research Note: Frederick Kemmelmeyer—From Hessian Soldier to American Artist" The MESDA Journal, 2013.