Date: Fri 25-Jun-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

RCHS-Spencer-portrait

Full Text:

Rensselaer County Historical Society Acquires Portraits By Frederick R.

Spencer

(with 2 cuts)

TROY, N.Y. -- The Rensselaer County Historical Society (RCHS) has received a

pair of oil on canvas companion portraits in gilded frames from a family

descendant, Margaret W. Cross. The portraits, painted circa 1831 by Frederick

R. Spencer (1806-1875), depict Mr and Mrs Griffith P. Griffith, prominent Troy

residents in the early Nineteenth Century.

"RCHS is doubly pleased to add these portraits to the collection," said RCHS

curator Stacy Pomeroy Draper. "Until this gift, Frederick Spencer's work was

not represented in the collection and most of the portraits already in the

collection date from after 1840."

Cross contacted RCHS about the portraits in late 1997 to see if the Griffiths'

home town wanted them. They were picked up at the Princeton, N.J., home of

Cross a year later and brought back to Troy.

The portraits, probably completed in time for the Griffith's 25th wedding

anniversary, show Mr Griffith with a background of the Hudson and a canal boat

just entering the canal. He was involved in a number of businesses that dealt

with the shipping of goods on the river and canals, including the Troy Tow

Boat Company. Mrs Griffith is shown wearing an elaborate bonnet with drapery

behind her and a small riverscape at her right.

Griffith Pritchard Griffith (1789-1854) and his wife, Phoebe Andress Scott

Griffith (1791-1859) lived at a number of locations in Troy, including 62

Second Street, at the time the portraits were painted. Later, the Griffiths

and their family were among the first residents of Washington Park, a

privately owned park developed beginning in 1840. The park is still jointly

owned and maintained by the property owners who live around it.

The artist was well-known for his portraits, starting out his career in New

York City in the mid 1820s studying with John Trumbull. In 1827 he returned

upstate, working in the Albany and Utica area. In late 1831 he moved to New

York City where he became part of a circle of prominent artists, becoming a

director of the American Academy of Fine Arts. He was elected an Associate of

the National Academy of Design in 1837 and an Academician in 1846, becoming

corresponding secretary in 1849. In 1858 he retired from New York City, again

moving back upstate, where he continued to paint until his death in 1875.