Portrait of Harriet

Jonathan Adams Bartlett's Portrait of Harriet presents an elegant young woman as if interrupted in her private reading. The sitter, her brown hair elaborately curled, wears a low-cut black gown with a frilled white collar. Holding a book, she is seated by a table piled with volumes before a backdrop of massive columns and a red gold-fringed drapery, with a glimpse of a pastoral landscape in the right distance. The portrait displays the awkwardness of anatomy and perspective characteristic of so-called folk painting created by self-taught American artisans in the first half of the nineteenth century. But with its busy and elaborate background and daring pose of the figure looking casually over her shoulder, Bartlett's portrait evinces the ambitions and sophisticated aspirations of painter and sitter alike.

The subject of Bartlett's portrait is said to be the eldest of his two younger sisters, Harriet Cushman Bartlett. She was born in 1825, suggesting a date for this portrait of approximately 1840 that is corroborated by the style of her dress and coiffure. Nothing beyond her birth-date is recorded, but Harriet must have been an enthusiastic reader, perhaps an aspiring intellectual, for her brother to have portrayed her as he did. In American portraits of the early nineteenth century, women reading books can signal piety and morality, but the casual abundance of reading matter in Harriet's portrait, along with the worldly sophistication of her background, suggests rather a personal passion for literature. Portrait of Harriet is one of only a very small number of portraits attributed to Bartlett, a versatile artisan who spent his entire career near his birthplace in southern Maine. Displaying the boldness and directness seen in other portraits by him, this work demonstrates the artist's awareness of the conventions of portraiture in the European-derived grand manner, a tradition that was being discarded by America's more sophisticated, urban painters at the time Bartlett made this likeness.

Two Centuries of American Folk Painting, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, February 10–April 21, 1985.

Selections from the Permanent Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, July 19–September 14, 1985.

Nineteenth Century Genre Painting from The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, November 15, 1985–January 12, 1986.

A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]

Face to Face: Portraits from the Collections of Terra Museum of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 8, 1994–April 2, 1995.

Selected Works from the Collections: Two Hundred Years of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 12–August 27, 1997.

Figures and Forms: Selections from the Terra Foundation for the Arts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 9–July 9, 2000.

(Re)Presenting Women, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 16, 2001–January 13, 2002.

A Rich Simplicity: Folk Art from the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 7–September 21, 2003.

American Classics, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, December 13, 2003–February 8, 2004.

Visages de l'Amérique: de George Washington à Marilyn Monroe (Faces of America: From George Washington to Marilyn Monroe), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2004. [exh. cat.]

Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940 (Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France and Miedzynarodowe Centrum Kultury (International Cultural Center), Cracow, Poland (organizers). Venue: International Cultural Center, Cracow, Poland, February 15–May 7, 2006. [exh. cat.]

Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation,Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, NY and Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, IL (organizers). Venues: National Museum of China, Beijing, China, February 9–April 5, 2007; Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China, April 30–June 30, 2007; Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China, April 30–June 30, 2007. (Shanghai presentations ran concurrently); The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia, July 23–September 9, 2007; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain, October 15, 2007–April 27, 2008 (exhibited in Bilbao). [exh. cat.]

Lyon, Christopher. "American Folk Painting Comes of Age at Terra." Chicago Sun Times (March 10, 1985). Text.

American Paintings III 1985. New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., 1985. Ill. p. 11 (color as Portrait of a Young Woman Reading a Book).

Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-22, p. 131 (color).

Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Faces of America: Portraits of the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text p. 30 (checklist); ill. p. 41 (color).

Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Visages de l'Amérique: le portrait dans la collection de la Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text p. 30 (checklist); ill. p. 41 (color).

Lévy, Sophie, et al. Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940/Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940. (exh. cat. International Cultural Center). Cracow, Poland: International Cultural Center, 2006. Ill. p. 57 (color).

Davidson, Susan, ed. Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation. (exh. cat., Guggenheim Museum Bilbao). New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Chicago, IL: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. (Spanish version). Ill. p. 81 (color). Bourguignon, Katherine M., and Peter John Brownlee, eds. Conversations with the Collection: A Terra Foundation Collection Handbook. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2018. Text p. 38; ill. p. 38 (color).