Lot 80: Royal Brewster Smith (Maine, 1801-1855) Portrait of Abner Chase Stockin, Age Three, of Monmouth, Maine, c. 1834. ,Unsigned, the sitter

Royal Brewster Smith (Maine, 1801-1855)

Portrait of Abner Chase Stockin, Age Three, of Monmouth, Maine, c. 1834. ,Unsigned, the sitter and artist identified in inscriptions on the reverse. Oil on canvas, depicting the boy seated in a painted chair, holding a book, 33 x 26 3/4 in., in a later molded giltwood frame. Condition: Relined, retouch.

Provenance: Family descent.

Exhibitions: Collector's View, March 15-April 20, 1986, Loch Haven Art Center, Orange County, Florida, exhibition label affixed to the back.

Note: A note written by Nina Fletcher Little identifying the artist as Royal Brewster Smith is affixed to the reverse.

Abner Chase Stockin was born Aug. 30, 1831, the son of Thomas Blossom Stockin and Lydia Ann Chase. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1857, was a teacher for twelve years, and later an educational publisher for thirty years. He married Helen Medora Towle (b. July 6, 1832) on August 3, 1858. They had at least one child, a son, Edwin Stockin (b. January 22, 1862, at Monmouth, Maine), who later became the publisher of the Youth's Companion of Boston. Abner died on January 11, 1901, at the age of seventy.