Collections record Beta
Collection Record Detail
Object Name
Oil Painting - Ruth Hitchcock Smith
Object Number
2018-13-2
Description
Oil on canvas portrait of Ruth Hitchcock Smith. Rectangular 1/4 length portrait, sitter facing right. Middle-aged woman with dark hair, hazel eyes, and multiple birth marks on her right cheek. Wears a brown silk or taffeta dress with a white lace fichu; dress cinched at waist with narrow white silk band. Tall cap or bonnet of white silk with white ribbon and bow. Set against plain background of greens and blues. Framed in gilt wood frame with gesso decoration.
Provenance
See 2018-12-1 for companion portrait of Maj. Gen. David Smith. David and Ruth Smith lived in Plymouth, CT, before settling in Litchfield in 1810, where two of their sons attended the Law School. Family history holds that the portraits were painted in Plymouth after the war. The donor is a descendant of the Smiths through their granddaughter, Amanda Lucinda Smith.
Comment
Attributed to Captain Simon Fitch of Lebanon, CT. Fitch studied under schoolmaster Nathan Tisdale at the Lebanon Academy, alongside famed artist Jonathan Trumbull. He served as a captain in the local militia during the Revolutionary War. He painted mostly in New London County but traveled for commissions; advertised his services in the Connecticut Journal as early as 1796.
Category
Maker
Date Made
1790-1800
Dimensions
Overall height 38.5", overall width 33", overall depth 2.625"; work 25.5" w, 30.875"h
Social Tags (experimental)
