The Reading Artist

Inscribed recto, ink: COL: ISAAC S. HOTTENSTEIN /1st Regiment, 2ons Brigade. 6te Division, Penf. Mil:

James G. Pennypacker, Reading, Pennsylvania
Pennypacker Auction Center, Reading, Pennsylvania, "The Collection of James G. Pennypacker," October 1973, lot 187

"The Pennsylvania Germans: A Celebration of Their Arts, 1683-1850," Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1982-1983

American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 69, fig. 38

Very good overall condition.
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More than thirty-five watercolor portraits, primarily executed between 1845 and 1850 in Berks and Lebanon Counties, Pennsylvania, have been attributed to an artist known as the Reading Artist, after the town in Berks County.1 The subjects, almost all of German heritage, are usually identified in Gothic-style script captions below their portraits, which are outlined with single- or double-ruled ink borders. These inscriptions sometimes give the name of the subject and the year of execution; others actually serve as birth and baptismal certificates and are accompanied by lengthier inscriptions with fuller data. Inscriptions are usually in German and less frequently in English; when in German, the artist's script is based on a broken-letter fraktur style that is often embellished with decorative flourished calligraphy. The subjects themselves are usually depicted full length in interior or exterior views, although a small percentage are shown three-quarter length. 

Isaac Hottenstein (1796-1875) was a physician who lived in Shamokin Dam on the west side of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. The son of a physician, he was born at the family homestead in Maxatawny (outside Kutztown) and followed another family tradition by actively participating in the Pennsylvania Militia.¹ In this painting by the Reading Artist, Hottenstein has proudly chosen to be portrayed in his military uniform. Pennsylvania Militia commission books for 1833-1842 list Hottenstein as a lieutenant colonel of the First Regiment, Second Brigade, Sixth Division. The commission books for the years 1842-1845 list him as a colonel. -S.C.H.

¹ David F. Hottenstein, letter to Ralph Esmerian, 1974 (AFAM files). Isaac's father, Dr. David Hottenstein, served as a brigadier general in the War of 1812 in the Sixth Division of the Pennsylvania Militia; his grandfather was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War