Pair of Portraits
David Low & Barbara Low
Silverpoint/Watercolor
David Boudon (1748 -c.1815)
Signed on back boards “David Boudon fecit”
Frederick, Maryland
1814
Born and trained in Switzerland, artist David Boudon began painting portraits in American c. 1794 and first worked in Charleston SC and Savannah. Along with aforementioned, he is known to have worked in New York City, Maryland, Philadelphia, Alexandria, Raleigh, Fayetteville, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington and Kentucky. Around 1813 Boudon began a westward migration through Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland and into Ohio where he was last recorded in 1817 Of the surviving portraits by Boudon, the majority are profiles done in the silverpoint technique on vellum, paper or ivory. This pair exhibit the extremely fine detail, delicatwe execution and coloring as well as capturing a distinct sense of his sitters’ personalities which are characteristic of Boudon’s best work.
As is the case with our portraits, Boudon frequently included inscriptions on the backings identifying the sitters and date. Additionally, he provides additional information on the verso of each. Barbara’s portrait is inscribed “Done by David Boudon painter from Geneva Switzerland, in Fredericks Town Maryland, February 23, 1814,” David’s is inscribed “Done by David Boudon painter from Geneva Switzerland, in Fredericks Town, 5 March, 1814,” Measuring ~ 3-1/4 x 2-7/8 in., the portraits are in their original period gilt wood frame with a painted eglomise oval mats, 5 x 4-3/8 Overall.
Recorded by MESDA field researchers as S-9561 & S-9562.
Provenance: Collection of Dr. George and Connie Manger. Exhibited: 2011; “Keepsakes of the Beloved: Portrait Miniatures and Profiles 1790-1840” at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts.
MESDA holds five Boudon portraits in the Museum’s collection and provides the following brief biography of the artist: “ARTIST: David Boudon was born in Geneva Switzerland in 1748. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to the Genevan copperplate engraver Jean-Daniel Dupre. He probably began as a copperplate engraver in the late 1760s. By 1780 he was also working in the metalpoint technique. Some scholars think Boudon moved from Geneva to Italy sometime after 1786. In 1794 he emigrated to America, working first in Charleston and Savannah and later in several mid-Atlantic locations. Toward the end of his career he moved further west to Chillicothe, Ohio.
Boudon is known primarily as a miniaturist, working mostly in silverpoint on vellum, although some of his works are watercolor on ivory. His style, with its thin color wash over a linear image, reflects his early training as an engraver. According to his own advertisements, he considered himself more as a drafstman or “limner” rather than a painter. (See Nancy E. Richards, “A Most Perfect Resemblance at Moderate Prices: The Miniatures of David Boudon.” (Winterthur Portfolio 9, pp 77-102)”