Mr. and Mrs. Lyman Day and Daughter Cornelia1823–18249 × 8 3/4"Watercolor and pencil on paperGift of Ralph Esmerian2013.1.901547764003P1.2001.172013.24.9Deborah GoldsmithDrawingsThe American Folk Art Museum believes this work to be in the public domain.SangerfieldSangerfieldUnited StatesNew YorkWorks on PapereMuseum - Collection HighlightsSangerfieldAgnes Halsey Jones, Rediscovered Painters of Upstate New York: 1700-1875, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York (1958)
Sandra C. Shaffer, Deborah Goldsmith, 1808-1836: A Naive Artist in Upstate New York, East St. Louis, Ill. (1975)
N.F. Karlins, The Paper of the State, Museum of American Folk Art, New York (1976)
Sandra Brant and Elissa Cullman, Small Folk: A Celebration of Childhood in America (New York: E.P. Dutton in association with the Museum of American Folk Art, 1980) 21.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Beatrix T. Rumford, ed., "American Folk Paintings: Paintings and Drawings Other Than Portraits from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center," Boston (A New York Graphic Society Book, Little, Brown and Company: 1988)
General referecnes on artist: Paul S. D'Ambrosio and Charlotte Emans, Folk Art's Many Faces: Portraits in the NewYork State Historical Association, Cooperstown, New York (New York State Historical Association: 1987)
Addison James Throop, ed. The Ancestral Charts of George Addison Throop, Deborah Goldsmith, many historically interesting letters from The Old Traveling Bag, east St. Louis, Ill. (privately published: 1934)
Jean Lipman, "Debrah Goldsmith, Itinerant Portrait Painter," Antiques XLIV (November 1943).
A parcel of letters and an old leather traveling bag: these were artifacts lovingly preserved after the death of a beloved mother in 1836 and rediscovered in the early twentieth century by family descendants. The letters revealed the intimate course of a courtship, marriage, family, and untimely death. The old leather satchel opened to reveal a number of cylindrical tin canisters holding small bladders filled with oil paints, little newspaper parcels tied with string containing powdered watercolor pigments, slices of ivory, and handmade feather quill brushes—thus, the history of Deborah Goldsmith, one of the few women in early nineteenth-century America to work professionally as an itinerant artist. Between 1824 and her marriage in 1832, Goldsmith traveled distances averaging seven to thirteen miles from her home bases of Brookfield and Hamilton, New York, to nearby Cooperstown, Hartwick, Hubbardsville, Lebanon, Sangerfield, and other small hamlets in western New York State. It was not a usual sight for a young woman to travel by stagecoach alone, and Goldsmith was most always accompanied by a relative, religious leader, or trusted acquaintance. The youngest daughter of aged parents, she spent much of her time at the home of her sister in Hamilton, a hub of intellectual activity and culture in the frontier communities of New York. Although there is no indication that she attended any of the academies established in Hamilton, two friendship albums, dating to the years from 1826 to 1831, are filled with offerings from her numbers of friends, many of whom were educated at one of the schools. The albums reveal her deep and reflective nature through her own beautifully composed poems, and sentiments and writings copied from other books and annuals such as The English Reader and The Token. The pages are enriched also by her beautiful and delicate drawings, both original and copied from published sources.
Goldsmith knew most of the people whom she portrayed, although the connection between the artist and the family of Lyman Day (1794–1874) is not known. This portrait was probably painted within a year or so of the birth of daughter Cornelia (1822–1904) to Lyman and Maria Preston Day (1803–1880) of Sangerfield, Oneida County. It is one of the earliest compositions known by the artist, who would have been only fifteen or sixteen years old at the time yet was already traveling a short distance from her home in Brookfield, New York, to paint portrait commissions. Although the palette is muted, Goldsmith’s interest in interior details is evident in the patterned rug and wallcovering in the sparsely furnished Day home, and reveals the aspirations of this farming family. Her observant eye captures the emotional trappings of life in this self-contained family scene expressing pride of place and tender affection for their first-born.
In 1831, Goldsmith was called to paint four portraits of the Throop family in Hubbardsville, where she met George Addison Throop. A devout Baptist, her correspondence with Throop, a Universalist, illuminates their struggle in resolving their different religious beliefs before deciding to marry. In her letter dated May 29, 1832, Goldsmith wrote, "…truth and truth alone shall flow from my pen…your religious sentiments and mine are different. Do you think that this difference will ever be the cause of unpleasant feeling? Your age and mine differ. I do not know your age exactly, but I believe that I am nearly two years older than you…has this ever been an objection in your mind? And another thing which I expect you already know is, that my teeth are partly artificial. Nature gave me as many teeth as she usually gives her children, but not as durable ones as some are blessed with. Some people think it is wrong to have anything artificial but I will let that subject go." George and Deborah were married by the end of the year and had their first child in 1833. Three months after the birth of her son in December 1835, Deborah became fatally ill. She died in March 1836, after a premonition of her own death, related to George in a letter from her mother:
March 6th. 1836
She told me today she thought she had been warned of her approaching dissolution by dreams before her confinement. Her grandmother appeared to her in a dream in celestial splendor, her raiment white and glittering, love and friendship beaming in her eyes. She told Deborah she had not long to live, but that need be no cause for regret. It would be to her unspeakable gain. She had a remarkable dream some time before her last sickness. She thought she had been painting her own likeness; she had a most excellent likeness, the eyes looked like real life. While she was looking and admiring it, suddenly the eyes closed. She felt surprised and called her husband; she said she certainly drew them open. She dreamed they both fell on their knees.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Mr. and Mrs. Lyman Day and Daughter Cornelia," exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgDeborah Goldsmith is one of a few early-nineteenth-century women documented as painting professionally, and her watercolors offer an affectionate glimpse into the lives of the farmers and artisans of rural upstate New York. It is thought that Goldsmith knew the people she portrayed, and this is supported by her delicate watercolor portraits that provide an intimate look at the faces of the region. This family portrait was probably painted within a year or so of the birth of daughter Cornelia to Lyman and Maria Preston Day. It indicates that Goldsmith was attempting complex compositions at the young age of 15 or 16 and was already traveling from her home in Brookfield, New York, to paint portrait commissions. It also demonstrates her early interest in interior details and here provides a glimpse of the highly patterned but sparsely furnished Day home in the farming community of Sangerfield. Her only other known interior scene, The Talcott Family, was painted almost ten years later and shows greater maturity in technique and composition. Yet the observant eye that carefully captured the decorative and emotional trappings of the Talcott home is already evident in this self-contained family scene and in details, such as the titled columns in the newspaper Mr. Day holds.
Goldsmith’s family migrated from Guilford, Connecticut, to Brookfield between 1805 and 1808. She spent much of her adolescence in the more cultured environment of Hamilton, at the home of her sister and brother-in-law Sanford Boon, a silversmith. She was a devout Baptist, and her correspondence with her fiancé, a Universalist, illuminates their struggle in resolving their different religious beliefs. Goldsmith married George Throop in 1832 and died just a few years later, in 1836, after having had a premonition of her own death. In addition to portraits of family, friends, and neighbors, she left behind two friendship albums started in 1826 and 1829 that were preserved by her descendants along with her box of paints. These are filled with a collection of poems and sentiments contributed by friends and culled from literary compendiums such as The Reader and The Token.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Mr. and Mrs. Lyman Day and Daughter Cornelia," in American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 384–385.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgP1.2001.172013.24.918231824 2013 1 9
A parcel of letters and an old leather traveling bag: these were artifacts lovingly preserved after the death of a beloved mother in 1836 and rediscovered in the early twentieth century by family descendants. The letters revealed the intimate course of a courtship, marriage, family, and untimely death. The old leather satchel opened to reveal a number of cylindrical tin canisters holding small bladders filled with oil paints, little newspaper parcels tied with string containing powdered watercolor pigments, slices of ivory, and handmade feather quill brushes—thus, the history of Deborah Goldsmith, one of the few women in early nineteenth-century America to work professionally as an itinerant artist. Between 1824 and her marriage in 1832, Goldsmith traveled distances averaging seven to thirteen miles from her home bases of Brookfield and Hamilton, New York, to nearby Cooperstown, Hartwick, Hubbardsville, Lebanon, Sangerfield, and other small hamlets in western New York State. It was not a usual sight for a young woman to travel by stagecoach alone, and Goldsmith was most always accompanied by a relative, religious leader, or trusted acquaintance. The youngest daughter of aged parents, she spent much of her time at the home of her sister in Hamilton, a hub of intellectual activity and culture in the frontier communities of New York. Although there is no indication that she attended any of the academies established in Hamilton, two friendship albums, dating to the years from 1826 to 1831, are filled with offerings from her numbers of friends, many of whom were educated at one of the schools. The albums reveal her deep and reflective nature through her own beautifully composed poems, and sentiments and writings copied from other books and annuals such as The English Reader and The Token. The pages are enriched also by her beautiful and delicate drawings, both original and copied from published sources.
Goldsmith knew most of the people whom she portrayed, although the connection between the artist and the family of Lyman Day (1794–1874) is not known. This portrait was probably painted within a year or so of the birth of daughter Cornelia (1822–1904) to Lyman and Maria Preston Day (1803–1880) of Sangerfield, Oneida County. It is one of the earliest compositions known by the artist, who would have been only fifteen or sixteen years old at the time yet was already traveling a short distance from her home in Brookfield, New York, to paint portrait commissions. Although the palette is muted, Goldsmith’s interest in interior details is evident in the patterned rug and wallcovering in the sparsely furnished Day home, and reveals the aspirations of this farming family. Her observant eye captures the emotional trappings of life in this self-contained family scene expressing pride of place and tender affection for their first-born.
In 1831, Goldsmith was called to paint four portraits of the Throop family in Hubbardsville, where she met George Addison Throop. A devout Baptist, her correspondence with Throop, a Universalist, illuminates their struggle in resolving their different religious beliefs before deciding to marry. In her letter dated May 29, 1832, Goldsmith wrote, "…truth and truth alone shall flow from my pen…your religious sentiments and mine are different. Do you think that this difference will ever be the cause of unpleasant feeling? Your age and mine differ. I do not know your age exactly, but I believe that I am nearly two years older than you…has this ever been an objection in your mind? And another thing which I expect you already know is, that my teeth are partly artificial. Nature gave me as many teeth as she usually gives her children, but not as durable ones as some are blessed with. Some people think it is wrong to have anything artificial but I will let that subject go." George and Deborah were married by the end of the year and had their first child in 1833. Three months after the birth of her son in December 1835, Deborah became fatally ill. She died in March 1836, after a premonition of her own death, related to George in a letter from her mother:
March 6th. 1836
She told me today she thought she had been warned of her approaching dissolution by dreams before her confinement. Her grandmother appeared to her in a dream in celestial splendor, her raiment white and glittering, love and friendship beaming in her eyes. She told Deborah she had not long to live, but that need be no cause for regret. It would be to her unspeakable gain. She had a remarkable dream some time before her last sickness. She thought she had been painting her own likeness; she had a most excellent likeness, the eyes looked like real life. While she was looking and admiring it, suddenly the eyes closed. She felt surprised and called her husband; she said she certainly drew them open. She dreamed they both fell on their knees.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Mr. and Mrs. Lyman Day and Daughter Cornelia," exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgDeborah Goldsmith is one of a few early-nineteenth-century women documented as painting professionally, and her watercolors offer an affectionate glimpse into the lives of the farmers and artisans of rural upstate New York. It is thought that Goldsmith knew the people she portrayed, and this is supported by her delicate watercolor portraits that provide an intimate look at the faces of the region. This family portrait was probably painted within a year or so of the birth of daughter Cornelia to Lyman and Maria Preston Day. It indicates that Goldsmith was attempting complex compositions at the young age of 15 or 16 and was already traveling from her home in Brookfield, New York, to paint portrait commissions. It also demonstrates her early interest in interior details and here provides a glimpse of the highly patterned but sparsely furnished Day home in the farming community of Sangerfield. Her only other known interior scene, The Talcott Family, was painted almost ten years later and shows greater maturity in technique and composition. Yet the observant eye that carefully captured the decorative and emotional trappings of the Talcott home is already evident in this self-contained family scene and in details, such as the titled columns in the newspaper Mr. Day holds.
Goldsmith’s family migrated from Guilford, Connecticut, to Brookfield between 1805 and 1808. She spent much of her adolescence in the more cultured environment of Hamilton, at the home of her sister and brother-in-law Sanford Boon, a silversmith. She was a devout Baptist, and her correspondence with her fiancé, a Universalist, illuminates their struggle in resolving their different religious beliefs. Goldsmith married George Throop in 1832 and died just a few years later, in 1836, after having had a premonition of her own death. In addition to portraits of family, friends, and neighbors, she left behind two friendship albums started in 1826 and 1829 that were preserved by her descendants along with her box of paints. These are filled with a collection of poems and sentiments contributed by friends and culled from literary compendiums such as The Reader and The Token.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Mr. and Mrs. Lyman Day and Daughter Cornelia," in American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 384–385.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org