Lot 48: Attributed to Joseph Badger (Boston and Charleston, South Carolina, 1708-1765)

Portrait of Joseph Goldthwaite (1730-1779), mid-18th century, Boston. Unsigned. Oil on canvas, the stiffly posed sitter wears a brown coat with large buttons in decorative outline against a greenish background, replaced frame is black painted with parcel gilt, sight size 23 1/2 x 18 1/2 in. Condition: Cleaned, relined, craquelure, minor inpainting.

Provenance: Deaccessioned from the New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Old Dartmouth Historical Society, proceeds to benefit the acquisition and conservation fund.

Note: From 1751-1754 Joseph Badger was the only portrait painter in Boston. Only about 150 of his portraits survive.

Major Joseph Goldthwaite was born in Boston, attended Boston Latin School and became an active Loyalist as Commissary and Barrack Master of the royal troops in Boston where he spent the winter of the siege. Subsequently he went with the British Army to Halifax and Quebec.