Paintings Worth Looking At

This past August, at the 2025 Collectors Fair in Manchester, New Hampshire, I spotted a pair of portraits hanging on the display wall of Saratoga Fine Art. They could be nothing but Kennedys – and brand-new Kennedys, at that. I excitedly informed Walter Bazar, an old friend and who works with his brother Peter at Saratoga Fine Art, about the re-attribution. Within the hour, Walter had changed the label to William W. Kennedy, and a new pair of Prior-Hamblin portraits gained their names. Kennedy’s portraits have a sensibility all their own. His paintings are infused with a high level of technical ability, competently capturing the sitter’s distinctive looks with unique stylization. Like any other artist, he has his quirks – wide-set eyes, broad faces, gently curved hands, firmly outlined features. With practice, it’s possible to spot a Kennedy from a mile away. And, more or less, that’s exactly what happened. Very few signed examples of William W. Kennedy’s works are known, which has hin...

Not long ago, in pursuit of a particularly phenomenal portrait of Irish origin, I found myself learning about the entire group of 18th century Irish painters, en masse. As one does. How better to sort through them and winnow down the field of contenders to a solid attribution? Well, in this case, it didn’t work, but I did find something intriguing. Along the way, sifting through possibilities, I saved a trio of works by Thomas Pooley   (1644-1723, Ireland), with the note “Too early, sadly.” It was a shame, because I’d have loved for this to be the artist. The portraits are fantastic. They’re a trio of youths from the Perceval family , a prominent Irish lineage. I was stunned by the dramatic chiaroscuro and the innovative optical-illusion framing. I resolved to put the artist on my to-do list and delve deeper into his oeuvre.

​​Upcoming at Eldred's this week (Nov 20-21, 2025) are three lots I've had the privilege of writing essays for: portraits by Samuel P. Howes, Jonas Welch Holman, and William Matthew Prior. The Howes and Holman are from my own collection, personally identified. You can read the lot essays on this page, or on the various online auction platforms. While it's challenging to part with any newfound treasures, they're ready for new homes.  - - - - Both auctions will begin at 9:30 EST, but keep in mind: Session II (Nov 20, 2025) starts at #5301, so #5438B and C - the Holmans and the Howes - will be about 137 lots into the auction, a little over two hours. I promise they are well worth the wait! And Session III (Nov 21, 2025) starts at #5601, so #5603 - the Prior - is up right away. Good luck to all!

In which a few intriguing social media discoveries are a good excuse to write about long-forgotten favorites. ( Daniel G. Lamont ) / ( Margaret B. Doyle ) / ( Otis Hovey ) - - -   DANIEL G. LAMONT (1817-1883) My initial foray into the Facebook antiques world was marked by the emergence of this curious and unique pair of portraits (Fig. 1). Shared to the “Early American” Facebook group on August 7, 2025 by an individual seeking more information about her mother’s collection, the style immediately struck me as familiar. I re-posted them as an open question, then quickly edited it once the answer occurred to me: Daniel G. Lamont. The more I looked at the portraits, the more I was convinced. They have a striking likeness to the portraits of Abby Weare Stone and Charles James Fox Stone (Fig. 2), a signed 1851 pair . 

After some troubleshooting, the comment function now works on all posts. Feel free to share your thoughts and remarks. 

Unsolved cases are the gift that keeps on giving. Usually, that gift is frustration. Such is the case for even the most high-profile research projects, like the first episode of Fake or Fortune Series 13, “ The Mystery of Churchill’s Garden. ” More information must be out there - but where? Perhaps there’s a few more hints. Among them: a darker side to Claude Lowther; a clue in the underpainting; and proof that not every Churchill book can be trusted. - - - PART 1: Lowther’s Lambs to the Slaughter

The possibly-Peckham Interior Scene sold today at Eldred's for $13,000, estimated $3-5,000! I did not bid. Many thanks again for the opportunity to research and write on it. (I do hope to eventually find out where it ended up!) Should anyone else be interested in a lot essay, or a research inquiry of any sort, I can always be found at emilyesser1@gmail.com .

Recently, I had the privilege of contributing a lot essay for Eldred's upcoming Americana Week. I'd written in with a correction about a portrait once attributed to Deacon Robert Peckham, which was received and amended with exemplary grace. Several emails later, I found myself looking through the auction catalogue, and spotted a piece with a suspiciously familiar composition: this Interior Scene . Its likeness to Peckham-Sawyer Family (1817) is hard to miss. 

One of the most vexing questions of the Prior-Hamblin School is how to tell five artistic hands apart. Now we have six. Recent research has revealed there's a particular version of the “flat style” face that doesn’t conform to any of the five known and documented Prior-Hamblins. After compiling and comparing many dozens of paintings, it has become obvious: we have a new artist on the horizon. Many thanks to Dr. Paul D'Ambrosio of Fenimore Museum for proposing that there is another unknown painter! I had gathered together a compilation, but was uncertain what to make of it. I consider this an incredibly exciting development. Like the rest, this artist paints highly distinctive eyes, which can serve as an attribution guide. Read on for the Eyes of the Sixth Prior-Hamblin. - - - 

The members of the so-called “Prior-Hamblin school” weren’t a school at all. Colleagues? Competitors? We still barely know. The five usual suspects - W.M. Prior, S.J. Hamblin, G.G. Hartwell, W W. Kennedy, and E.W. Blake - are constantly compared, mixed up, and conflated. However, despite their profound similarities, they all had their own quirks - especially when it comes to a pair of eyes. Part 1 of this post will address, illustrate, and explain the PHS's five unique methods for the so-called windows to the soul. The PHS problem has been tackled by exceptional folk art scholars for generations before me, so I don't expect this post to solve it. However, I hope that it will offer some useful clues.  Read on for the Eyes of the Prior-Hamblins.  - - -

Hello all - my recent blog articles have been scarce, but I'm pleased to announce the American Folk Portraits Wiki ( https://americanfolkportraits.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page ) now features 250+ artists and 750+ signed/credibly inscribed portraits. These painters range from the well-known to the obscure, and span the entire 19th century. I hope this will serve as a valuable reference point for identification and attribution. Work on the wiki is far from complete, and will resume as soon as I finish this post. For now, enjoy! 

One might be forgiven for assuming that the onslaught of low-quality images generated by AI, littering social media like a graveyard, has not affected real painting scholarship. Unfortunately, that is not entirely true. Certain types of AI styles are good enough to fool the unwary. They occasionally pop up in art history discussion groups online. I’ve even had personal encounters with these fakes myself. In the interest of a warning, and a word to the wise, here’s some pointers on how to spot them.

When the matched paintings of “ Newburgh Children ” and “ Palmer Children ” first appeared at Christie’s 2024 Important Americana (lots 429/430) , they were attributed to Edwin Weyburn Goodwin. But they bore a striking resemblance to the fine and elaborate portrait, “Miss Tweedy of Brooklyn,” attributed to Orlando Hand Bears for decades. As it turns out: Bears didn’t paint Miss Tweedy (real name Eliza Bird Tweedy.) Nor did he paint the identical portrait of Mary Louisa Bird — Eliza’s younger sister! And the “Tweedy-Bird Limner” was born.

Here's the transcript of my talk for the John Greenleaf Whittier Birthplace about Deacon Robert Peckham, "In Behalf of Oppressed Humanity." Many thanks to Whittier Birthplace director  Kaleigh Paré Shaughnessy, and everyone who attended.  Links are available here: Presentation Slides / Video . The transcript is verbatim (made with Turboscribe ); brackets indicate edits for clarity. This is a bit longer than most blog articles - thanks for reading, if you do! - - -