By Carla Charter

During a visit to the Narragansett Historical Society in early August, Folk Art Specialist Emily Esser was able to identify several of the society’s paintings, which previously were listed as by an “unattributed artist” as works done by local itinerant artist Deacon Robert Peckham. Among these previously unattributed paintings are those of Captain Abijah and Pheobe (Cuutting) Jones and Gilbert and Bathsheba (Hosmer) Day.

Peckham was born in 1785 in Petersham, according to Peckham descendant Kelly Elliott. Peckham lived in several surrounding towns including Northampton, Bolton and finally Westminster, where his house still stands on Academy Street. Peckham typically painted within a 50-mile radius of his hometown of Westminster, Esser explained. The Joneses were from Templeton, and the Days were from Baldwinville.

“Robert was an itinerant painter who was hired by mostly local upper-class families to paint portraits of themselves or their children,” said Elliott. “He did study under Ethan Allen Greenwood at the beginning of his career.”

When Esser visited the society, she said, “At first I saw the wonderful painting in their main parlor of Harriet Bond, painted in 1853. She is one of the best Peckhams I’ve ever seen. Harriet Eliza (Bond) Lincoln was the daughter of Moses and Lucy (Fiske) Bond and was born in North Brookfield on June 18, 1821. She spent her childhood in the house of Miss Eliza Stone in Templeton, where she was a student in a school for young girls that Stone ran,” according to Brian Tanguay, President of the Narragansett Historical Society.

“After studying Harriet for a while, I asked if we could go upstairs. Where there is one Peckham, I suspected, there could be more. And there were!”

Tanguay brought her and Elliott upstairs to visit the Goodridge Portrait miniatures. There, Esser spotted two portraits, those of Capt. Abijah Jones and his wife Phoebe (Cutting) Jones, which she soon attributed to Peckham as well. Capt. Abijah Jones built his home in Templeton in 1823. He and his wife Pheobe were charter members of the Trinitarian Church, which was once located next to the current Boynton Public Library in Templeton.

After a few minutes of discussion, Esser was also shown the wedding portraits of Gilman Day, co-owner of Smith and Day Chair Company in Baldwinville, and his wife Bathsheba. After examining them Esser said those were also probably done by Peckham.

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“We will have others verify her findings...She’s identified so many Peckhams. There’s little doubt,” said Tanguay. “I’m researching several art grants, one from the town and others at the Community Foundation of NCM (North Central Massachusetts,).”

It is hoped preservation work will begin in the next six months.

Esser said she took the trip from Wisconsin to Massachusetts because “I wanted to see the Peckhams! So far I’ve had the good fortune to study 41 of his portraits. They are everywhere in this area.”

So far, Esser stated, she knows of about 100 Peckhams, “give or take a debatable handful.” The previous number was about 50, she added. Esser said she believes this number reflects only a fraction of the work Peckham must have completed during his lifetime.

“Another Massachusetts folk artist, Joseph Whiting Stock, is estimated to have painted almost a thousand portraits in his short life, but only about a hundred of those have survived to the modern day,” Esser said. “We can only imagine how many paintings Peckham, who lived to 92, could have completed.”

The 1853 Harriet Bond portrait, “illuminates a difficult part of Peckham’s life that we know very little about. He was a lifelong abolitionist, which got him in trouble with his church in the 1850s,” Esser said. “He moved to Worcester after being excommunicated, though it was eventually settled, and he returned to Westminster. The 1853 date tells us that, despite all the turmoil, he still had his successful art career. I was glad to find out about that.”

“He became a deacon of the First Congregational Church of Westminster,” Elliott explained. “He was very outspoken on the topics of slavery, a devoted abolitionist and was very much a leader of the temperance movement in Westminster. His outspoken behavior and strong beliefs eventually got him excommunicated from the church.”

Esser said other paintings she had identified as Peckham’s on her trip include a large-scale portrait of Edward Hitchcock, famous geologist, third president of Amherst College and a friend of Peckham’s, as well as portraits of a doctor in Bolton, the two couples in Templeton, and a mysterious gentleman from Sterling.

As for identifying a painting as a Peckham, Esser explained “Folk art is almost always unsigned. Therefore, we have to analyze the paintings based on their style and technique, as well as historical context clues. Ultimately, most of it comes down to the unique ‘look’ of the picture, and whether it matches that painter’s specific quirks. Peckham’s portraits have a polished, refined look that’s slightly stylized, accentuating the individual’s most distinctive facial features. They usually include a high level of detail and personalization in the clothes, items and jewelry. The subjects all have very intelligent gazes that look right back at you.”

Elliott said her mother Martha (Peckham) Padula and her aunt Janice (Peckham) Wagner, both of Phillipston, taught her about the paintings when she was much younger. Her aunt discovered the Webster Tucker painting at the Winchendon Historical Society which was sold by Skinner Auction in 2004. That sale brought Peckham into the light again by the National Gallery of Art, she said.

Peckham’s paintings can be seen at the Forbush Library in Westminster, Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, at the Abby Aldridge Rockefeller Folk Art Museum at Colonial Williamsburg, the Worcester Art Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery of Arts in Washington D.C., which Elliott said held an exhibit of nine of Peckham’s paintings, including the “Hobby Horse” in 2012.

Other paintings have been donated, on loan or in private collections.

“I firmly believe there are so many more of his paintings unknown simply because they are still hiding in people’s attics or on living room walls,” Elliott said.

Esser agrees there are more paintings to be discovered, saying “Absolutely. I know there are so many more!...You might even have one yourself. If you have any old family portraits sitting around that look like they know a little too much... email me!”

Esser can be contacted by e-mail at emilyesser1@gmail.com

The Day portraits are in storage until their preservation is completed. The portraits of the Jones’ and that of Harriet (Bond) Lincoln are on display and can be viewed at the society on Tuesday night from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. or Saturday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The museum will also be open during the society’s Motorpolooza event on Sept. 22 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., which is free and open to the public.

Carla Charter is a freelance writer from Phillipston. Her writing focuses on the history of the North Quabbin area. Contact her at cjfreelancewriter@earthlink.net.