Lot 434: Attributed to Chester Harding (American/Kentucky,

Attributed to Chester Harding (American/Kentucky, 1792-1866), a pair of portraits of "Mr. Churchill Samuel" and "Mrs. Judith Talbot Samuel", oils on canvas, unsigned, biographical label en verso, 30 in. x 25 in., in matching period frames. Provenance: Descended in the family of the sitters, Tennessee. Note: Born into a political family, Judith Talbot Samuel was the daughter of Kentucky Senator Isham and Margaret Garrard Talbot. Portraits of her grandparents "Kentucky Governor James and Elizabeth Mountjoy Garrard" attributed to Chester Harding with the same provenance sold in these rooms on February 3, 2008. Initially self-taught, Chester Harding studied for two months at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and while living in Kentucky appears to have been influenced by the leading portraitist of the day, Matthew Jouett. From 1818 to 1823 Harding opened a portrait studio in Kentucky, where he earned national attention for his likeness of the frontier hero Daniel Boone. During this time, he evidently painted the engaging pendant portraits of "Mr. And Mrs. Churchill Samuel" and "Governor and Mrs. James Garrard."