The Debut of Tweedy-Bird (The Tweedy-Bird Limner)

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.

(Credits: Miss Tweedy is at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MA. Mary Louisa Bird is at Heritage Museums & Gardens, Sandwich, MA. Much credit to curator Jennifer Y. Madden for her tireless efforts since the 1990s to identify the artist of Mary Louisa!) 

Information is still sparse, but Tweedy-Birds are everywhere. Most are Brooklyn sitters, c. 1830-50. The Bird sisters, and their mother, Maria B. Bird, date to 1837, thanks to handwritten verso labels. There are a few famous subjects, like the incredibly named “Preserved Fish,” a wily New York merchant. (To think: our painter could have been the “Preserved Fish Limner.”) Four pictures are currently misattributed to Bears: the “Dusenberry Sisters,” “Philander Fordham” and “Emaria Fordham,” and Miss Tweedy herself. One is labeled as the work of short-lived NY painter Randall Palmer: “The Young Artist,” arguably one of the greatest Tweedy-Bird masterpieces. There’s even a supposed Joseph Whiting Stock: “Portrait of Amy Philpot,” a little blond girl with a doll and a gorgeous turquoise dress.  

(Credits: Preserved Fish is at the New York Historical Society; The Young Artist is at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Amy Philpot is unlocated.) 

And, as we know, two of these have been dubbed “Edwin Weyburn Goodwin.” But why? The answer goes all the way back to the Downtown Gallery Records (held at the Smithsonian's AAA). On May 2, 1844, noted dealer Edith Halpert received a letter from J.D. Hatch, Jr, director of the Albany Institute of History and Art. Hatch declared that Edwin Weyburn Goodwin was “undoubtedly” the author of the triple portrait, “Newburgh Children.” 

Edith Halpert wrote back promptly, thanking Hatch and asking for a photograph of Goodwin’s “Christmas Presents” for comparison, but he demurred: 

Hatch declared his assumption “perhaps a logical one.” Actually, it was founded on a logical leap. No doubt Goodwin worked in the same state at the same time — but where’s the grounds to say that the children with their toys are “Christmas Presents”? Toys and pets are an incredibly common feature of child portraiture of the era. Goodwin was not the only painter in New York, nor the first to depict a child. And a comparison with Goodwin’s portrait of his own son, Charles Edwin Goodwin — found in Frick Digital Collections - reveals a striking lack of likeness.

Just to make sure, I dug up Goodwin’s entry in the National Academy of Design 1826-1860 exhibition record (p. 189). In 1841, when he exhibited “Christmas Presents-Children of the Artist,” his listed address was Albany, not Newburgh. The identification remains spurious.

And so, we’re back at square one: the Tweedy-Bird Limner, no more, no less. It’s nobody’s fault that the “Goodwin” title stuck, nor are any owners or sellers in the wrong to have believed it. But, at the very least, it’s an important reminder about the value of skepticism. 

I wish I had a name to offer, but I believe someday I will. If this style looks familiar, or if you think you might own one of these, email me! emilyesser1@gmail.com

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This was originally sent in to Maine Antique Digest for their March coverage of the Christie’s Important Americana 2025 sale, and wisely condensed to a paragraph at at their discretion! So, now that MAD’s April 2025 issue is out, I'm sharing it here instead. It is one of the few concise things I have ever written.