Portsmouth Athenaeum

Can you help us identify the subject of this painting?

The Art and Artifacts Committee would be grateful for any leads which would help identify the subject of this oil painting on canvas. The portrait is of a young woman in a high-necked white dress with lace collar. She has brown hair and eyes. The brown background has a signature on the left near her elbow: “U.D. Tenney 1902.” The gold frame is molded with applied foliate ornamentation. The donors bought this painting at auction and gave it to the Athenaeum in 1997.

Ulysses Dow Tenney lived in Portsmouth and was well-known as a portrait painter. The Athenaeum owns several portraits by Tenney, and we believe there is a good chance that this portrait is of a Portsmouth woman. If you can identify her, email us at athartifacts@portsmouthathenaeum.org.

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Spotlight on Our
Collection

Portrait of Charles Cushing

This oil portrait of Charles Cushing was recently restored with funds from the Board of Directors. Charles Cushing (1775 – 1849) was a Portsmouth businessman, gentleman farmer and also a proprietor of the Athenaeum. His wife, Mary Quincy Sheafe, came from a prominent Portsmouth family. The Athenaeum also owns her portrait During the nineteenth century the painting hung in the Wentworth-Coolidge mansion. In 1816 Mr. Cushing purchased the Benning Wentworth house at Little Harbor from John and Martha Wentworth, and the family lived there until 1886 when the house was sold to John Templeman Coolidge.

Though we have no proof as yet, the painting may possibly be by Chester Harding, 1792-1866, a prominent portrait painter. Harding was known to have painted in Portsmouth in the late 1840s. A similar painting by Harding, of Samuel Cushman of Portsmouth (1783-1851), hangs in the NH State House. The pose, attire and chair are very similar. The canvas of both our painting and that of Cushman bears the same mark: “Prepared by O. Stearns, No. 9 Amory Hall, Boston.” This mark was used by Stearns for only two years, 1848-49.