AFA Winter 2017

2017 Antiques & Fine Art 95 “know that I painted fancy pictures for my friends, never know anything against the law but obey it.” He claimed that he did not understand the proceedings and was tricked when the clerk of the court made a “G” with his finger, after which Augustus also made the sign. The clerk then told the judge that he had pleaded guilty. From jail, he bitterly complained that he was put to work as a shoemaker. “I work hard like a slave . . . God Pity the poor, ignorant and deaf mute . . . .” George wrote to their father, “Perhaps a little punishment may be beneficial to him . . . it is mortifying enough but I do not know that we have neglected anything in our power for his welfare.” After the jail sentence, Augustus spent increasing amounts of time at the family farm in Deerfield while continuing to make painting trips. Letters between family members described him being “so taken up with the fine arts as to be of no use at home” and that “he rises early & paints by lamp light.” In 1859, when his father died, Augustus received only a token payment of $50. As his health began to fail in the early 1870s, Augustus expressed regrets for missed opportunities. “[I] would have liked much money for traveling thro London, Paris (France) & Rome in Italy perhaps Egypt and Africa myself alone [or] with many portrait painters of eminence and great talents . . . but they can never ever beat me because I am always deaf-mute person and used it to become celebrated.” Augustus Fuller died on August 12, 1873. His aunt, Caroline Negus, had reminisced, “I often think of him & dwell on those old days when he was as gay and graceful as a fawn, & when he was admitted by all to be the most fascinating of boys - I will never cease to regret his being deaf & dumb.” Michael R. Payne, Ph.D. and Suzanne Rudnick Payne, Ph.D. research early American folk artists. This is the fourteenth article they have published on early American painters. They would like to express their deepest gratitude to David Bosse, Librarian, Historic Deerfield, and Suzanne Flynt, Curator, Memorial Hall Museum, Deerfield, Mass., for their unfailing help. 1. The school’s name was changed in 1820 to the American Asylum and today is known as the American School for the Deaf. 2. The information and quotes in this article are from the Fuller-Higginson family papers, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library, Deerfield, Mass. The authors have examined all of the documents concerning Augustus Fuller amongst the over 30,000 items in this family archive. For additional Augustus Fuller paintings, see Caroline F. Sloat, editor , Meet Your Neighbors: New England Portraits, Painters & Society, 1790–1850 (Amherst, Mass.: Old Sturbridge Village, 1992). 3. Another folk portrait painter, John Brewster Jr. (1766–1854), also attended the Connecticut Asylum. Brewster did not attend the Asylum at the same time as Augustus Fuller. 4. We have located numerous 1830 receipts for portraits at $5.00, the purchase of wood boards for paintings at 25 cents, and several advertisements in the nearby Greenfield, Massachusetts, newspaper. Fig. 10 : Augustus Fuller (1812–1873), Mary Ella Childs holding Lilla, Deerfield, Mass., ca. 1863. Watercolor on paper, 9 x 7.1 inches. Collection of the Memorial Hall Museum, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield, Mass. Photograph by the authors. This portrait descended in the Fuller family until donated to the Memorial Hall Museum. Fig. 12 : George Fuller (1822–1884), Augustus Fuller, 1841. Pencil on paper, 7 x 6 inches. Inscribed “Drawn by GB Fuller of A. Fuller Sept 11 th 1841.” Fuller-Higginson Papers, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library, Deerfield, Mass. Photograph by the authors. Fig. 11 : Boston Morning Post, Boston, Mass., August 12, 1840.