Portsmouth Athenaeum

The portrait of Charles Prescott by Edmund Tarbell in original Walfred Thulin frame

The recent acquisition of a portrait of Portsmouth native Charles Prescott proved to be a ‘two-for-one’. Not only did we receive this portrait by Edmund Tarbell, an important Boston artist and a part-time New Castle resident, but we also have the black and gilded, hand-carved frame by Walfred Thulin, which is signed and dated 1935.

Tarbell (1862-1938) was recognized as an important American Impressionist painter and was renowned for his refined New England interiors as well as the vibrant paintings of his family, many of them produced in New Castle. He, along with Childe Hassam and Frank Weston Benson, was a member of the Ten American Painters of Boston and New York.

Thulin lived and worked in the Boston area, producing striking frames for artists and art collectors. His frames have become highly sought-after collectors’ items in their own right and are usually identified along with their paintings in descriptions and auction catalogs.

Charles Prescott (1853-1932) grew up in Portsmouth and made his fortune as a partner in Trask & Prescott, a retail business in Erie, Pennsylvania, founded in the late nineteenth century. After his death his fortune came to his sisters in Portsmouth, who dedicated the money to the foundation of Prescott Park, a park on the riverbank which is an attraction for Portsmouth families and visitors alike. The painting was a gift of the Barondes family and hangs in the Research Library at the Athenaeum.

Tour the Athenæum

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Library, Third Floor

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Joseph Sawtelle Reading Room

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Spotlight on Our
Collection

A Tale of Two 19th Century Prints

An engraving of Queen Victoria as a young woman in evening dress and wearing the sash of the Order of the Garter is now on display on the Mezzanine at the Athenaeum. The engraving, based on an earlier painting by Edmund Parris on the occasion of the Queen’s first state visit to the Drury Lane Theater in 1837, has recently been re-framed and re-hung. Parris, noted for his paintings portraying female beauty, sketched the young Queen as she stood in her theater box. Our copy of the engraving was published by A. Dick in London in 1839. The image of the Queen was put into a frame already owned by the Athenaeum about 1890.

Napoleon II

Hidden behind the Queen in the 19th-century frame was a print of Le Prince Imperial (Napoleon II). Only in 1994, when the engraving of Queen was removed from its frame for examination, was the print of the young boy discovered. It had been hidden from view for over a century, but was then put away in a box. The image of Napoleon Francoise Charles Joseph, born March 20, 1811, was engraved by F. Lignon after M. Gerard and printed by Durand. The boy is shown dressed in a Hussar uniform with a pelisse over his shoulder. A search in the c.1830 Athenaeum catalog revealed that the print of Napoleon’s son had been given to the Athenaeum in the 1820s by a Captain Wingate. The print, now in its original frame, can be seen in the Old Library Room.