AFA Winter 2017

2017 Antiques & Fine Art 93 As time progressed, Augustus increasingly traveled alone. From Chatham, Connecticut, he wrote, “I have the good opportunity to stay here to paint 5 to 7 portraits at no less than $10.00 each.” Occasionally, he received $25 for a large portrait “with hands.” He worked for a few months as a lithographer in New York City in late 1832, and wrote his parents, “I fear that you will take much trouble knowing where I am, Perhaps you thought I ran away!” In 1833, his father “carried Augustus to Boston where [he] placed him with Mr. Harding, so he can be [a] better painter . . . He will remain for six or eight weeks to complete his education,” after which it was expected he would be “able to compete with Master Artists.” According to the surviving receipt, Chester Harding (1792–1866) charged $64.50 for the painting lessons. Throughout his career, Augustus emphasized portrait miniatures on ivory and they represent the majority of his extant work (Figs. 2, 3, 4a, b). Several invoices describe that he purchased inexpensive ivory blanks with prices ranging from twenty to twenty-five cents. Portraits were also painted with oil on wood board or on canvas (Figs. 5a, b, 6, 7). Additionally, Augustus produced small watercolor on paper portraits of bust-length adults (Fig. 8) and full-length children, usually with toys, against a fully painted background (Figs. 9, 10). Augustus was extremely proud of his profession, which allowed him to be self-sufficient. In 1836 he wrote to his parents, “Nothing is [more important than] the fact that manifesting the human ideas of beauty and natural colours . . . I seize the opportunity for honor and profession . . . now I am busily engage to paint portraits from life better than given . . . am much encouraged with customers.” The Boston Morning Post (Fig. 11) described Augustus as “A deaf and mute genius.” Augustus wrote to his father in 1840 that “I am daily engaged in miniature painting . . . Happily for us to record many days with a glorious profession . . . perhaps I am yet a king or emperor of all arts, for taste and correct judgments . . . with painting for correctness of mind and character preeminent . . . They are foolish . . . for they think “Italy is proper for American beginners” NO! American is the first term for good portrait and landscape painters . . . I need not to Europe or Italy for I understand America is the best place to study [for] years . . . with A[merica’s] productions of the first order.” In May 1840, Augustus and his younger brother George were in Boston and attended a daguerreotype demonstration, one of the first displays in America of this new process. George wrote to their father asking to borrow money, “you have heard much (through the papers) of the daguerreotype . . . Augustus and I went to see the specimens . . . Mr. Gouraud . . . will give me instructions for $10.00, and the apparatus will cost $51.00 making in all $61.00 only . . . I think anyone would give $7.00 for their perfect likeness. We could clear ourselves of all expenses in two weeks.” On a trip together through upstate New York starting in December 1840, Augustus painted oil on canvas portraits for $10 and miniatures on ivory for $5, while George sold the novel daguerreotypes at $10 each. George wrote to their parents “people’s judging of painting I find it is regulated more by price Fig. 6 : Augustus Fuller (1812–1873), Fanny Negus Fuller (1799–1845) with sons Francis Benjamin Fuller and John Emery Fuller, Deerfield, Mass., ca. 1838. Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 inches. The Charles P. Russell Collection, Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, Mass. Photograph by the authors. Fig. 7 : Augustus Fuller (1812–1873), Emily Merrill Bardwell (1809–1843), ca. 1840. Oil on canvas, 29 x 23 inches. Collection of Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Mass.; Gift of Barbara Hadley Stein, class of 1938. Photograph by the authors.