Lot 425: Attributed to Samuel Broadbent Jr. (American/Pennsylvania/South Carolina, 1808-1880), "Portraits of Captain John Henry Heise (1808-1883) and His Wife Rachel Duke Heise (1814-1880) of Columbia, South Carolina," c. 1846, E

† Attributed to Samuel Broadbent Jr. (American/Pennsylvania/South Carolina, 1808-1880), "Portraits of Captain John Henry Heise (1808-1883) and His Wife Rachel Duke Heise (1814-1880) of Columbia, South Carolina," c. 1846,
each oil on canvas, the latter with "J.C. Simons, Charleston, SC" canvas supplier stencil en verso, each unsigned, each with mid- 20th century cards stating the sitters' names and restoration work, presented in matching giltwood frames,

Each H.- 30 in., W.- 25 in., Framed H.- 35 1/4 in., W.- 30 1/4 in. (2 Pcs.)

Descended in the family of the sitters through their great-granddaughter Margery Heise Mauney and her son.

Note: The Heises, pictured in this lot, are one of Columbia, South Carolina's oldest families. John Henry Heise was raised in Washington D.C. and moved to Columbia after his marriage in 1833 to Rachel Sara Amelia Duke, the daughter of a planter from Fairfield County, just north of Columbia. Heise fought in the War of 1848 and was a member of the Home Guard during the Civil War. His sons Henry Christian and John Edward were decorated war veterans, the former by General Lee's side when he surrendered at Appomattox. These portraits were likely painted before Heise deployed for Mexico in late 1845/1846; these dates also coincide with the painter's residency in Charleston and in Columbia.

Samuel Broadbent Jr., son of the preeminent folk portrait painter by the same name, was raised in New York and trained as both a portraitist in oils and in ambro/dagguerro-types, traveling throughout the Eastern sea bord from the early 1840s into the 1860s. According to the chronology and papers published on the artist by Pioneer American Photographers, 1839-1860, Broadbent Jr. had taken a studio at 271 King Street in Charleston in late 1845, just a few blocks down from the Oil and Paint store run by J.C. (John Christian) Simons at 208 King Street, where he purchased the canvas for the portrait of Rachel Heise that bears the stencil stamp en verso "J.C. Simons/ Oil and Paint…./No. King St/Charleston, SC. From December of 1845 into early 1846, Broadbent Jr. relocated to Columbia taking daguerreian and painted portrait commissions at the Maybin Hotel (Congaree House).

The Heises, a well established family, who continued to flourish in the post-war years as confectioners and fine good merchants, would have been attracted to securing both daguerreian and painted portraits of their family members.