Description:

Matthew Harris Jouett
American/Kentucky, 1788-1827
"Sarah Finley Scott Humphreys (1806-1883)"
oil on canvas
c. 1822, unsigned, framed; TOGETHER WITH Matthew Harris Jouett (1788-1827) His Life & Work monograph and  Catalogue of Paintings by Matthew Harris Jouett exhibition catalogue.
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm.), Frame: 34 x 29 x 1 1/2 in. (86.4 x 73.7 x 3.8 cm.)

Provenance: The sitter, Sarah Finley Scott Humphreys; her son, Joseph Alexander Humphreys; his wife, Sara Thompson Gibson Humphreys; her daughter, Sarah Gibson Humphreys Chenault; her daughter, Sarah Chenault Buckner; her son, Garrett Davis Buckner; his daughter, Alice Buckner Kennedy; Private Collection.

Ref.: Martin, Mrs. William H. Catalogue of Paintings by Matthew Harris Jouett. Louisville: The J. B. Speed Museum, 1939, p. 27; Pennington, Estill Curtis. Matthew Harris Jouett (1788-1827) His Life & Work. Paris, KY, 2020, p. 153; Price, Samuel Woodson. "Richard Jouett Menefee: Catalog of Jouett Pictures and Their Owners." The Old Masters of Bluegrass, Filson Club Publications, 1902, p. 66.

Neal Auction would like to thank Mr. Estill Curtis Pennington for his expert assistance with this lot. The following catalogue note is an excerpt from his extensive research regarding the portrait and sitter and his monograph on the artist, Matthew Harris Jouett (1788-1827): His Life and Work, published in 2020.
Sarah Finley Scott Humphreys (1806-1883) was born in Chillicothe, Ohio to Dr. Joseph Scott (1781-1843) and his wife Martha Finley (1783-1814). The Scott family had long been a presence in the Chillicothe community. Chillicothe was a prosperous market town with strong ties to Maysville, Kentucky. She married David Carlisle Humphreys (1796-1864) in October, 1825. Though a native of Staunton, Virginia, Humphreys had migrated to Woodford County, Kentucky c.1802, following the death of his father, Dr. Alexander Humphreys…His mother, Mary Brown Humphreys (1763-1836) was the sister of Senator John Brown, of Frankfort, where she soon became a notable presence, it being reported that she led the Assembly Ball in Frankfort, 1816 at the age of 73. Her daughter Betsy Humphreys Todd (1800-1874) was the stepmother of Mary Todd Lincoln. Both the Scott and Humphreys families felt the draw of their Kentucky connections. In the same year of his marriage D.C. Humphreys purchased "Sumner's Forest" from his uncle Dr. Preston Brown of Frankfort [Kentucky], and it was there that his son Joseph Alexander Humphreys was born in 1826...
David Humphreys became a very successful farmer and stock breeder who purchased an additional farm, near Midway and there built a home, Waverly. Here he and Sarah were to have six children, four of who survived to adulthood: Joseph Alexander (1826-1863), Samuel (1828-1857), Mary Brown (1830-1885) and Lucy (1833-1858)… In a will dated May 7, 1863, D. C. Humphreys "gave his wife Sarah 460 acres of land, all household and kitchen furniture, the silver ware, books carriage, carriage horses, the crop growing on the land and ten slaves." The U.S. census for 1870 lists her as living with her daughter, Mary Dey at the home place, while the 1880 census lists her as living alone. She is buried in the Frankfort cemetery.
During his period of study with Gilbert Stuart in Boston, 1816, [Matthew Jouett] observed and later deployed many of the older artist's compositional techniques to enhance depth and perspective. Many of these deploy a curled fringe hairdo over the forehead, and a paisley shawl loosely draped over the shoulder or about the midriff, as to be seen in various portraits, ranging from his painting of Dolley Madison in Neo-Grec attire to the distinctly costumed image of Elizabeth Pickering Dorsey, which Jouette noted admiring. Upon his return to Kentucky Jouett painted several women in this style, the portrait of Sarah Humphreys being a fine example. 

    Condition:
  • Very old reline with trimmed edges, some edges lifting; difficult to penetrate varnish layer with UV light; signs of inpainting in background to right of sitter's head and near lower left edge in background; cloudy and dirty uneven varnish layer; craquelure pattern visible throughout, particularly in darker areas; surface dirt; scattered abrasions and small losses along all edges; few pinpoint losses, accretions and marks scattered throughout; frame has separation at corners, breaks along the outer left and right edges, scattered marks, nicks, abrasions and small losses.

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