Abijah Bigelow
|
|
|
ABIJAH BIGELOW (1775-1860), October 1853
James Sullivan Lincoln (1811-1888)
oil on canvas
12 x 10 1/8 (30.48 x 25.71)
Deposited by Daniel Berkeley Updike, 1916
Gift of Daniel Berkeley Updike, 1941
Weis #11
Hewes #9
More
information
|
|
Abijah Bigelow, a 1795 graduate of Dartmouth College, was a
lawyer and
politician who lived in Leominster and Worcester, Massachusetts. A
Federalist
representative to Congress from 1800 to 1815, he strongly opposed
the
War of 1812. Letters from Bigelow while he was serving in
Washington,
D.C., reveal a man with strong interest in family and civic
issues. He
described the actions and debates of Congress to his wife Hannah
Gardner
Bigelow (1780-1857) and his frustration by the American political
system.
On one occasion he wrote, 'We have no news of importance, the same
routine
of business in Congress, the same blustering against Great
Britain, the
same talk of war, and at the close they will rise with doing as
little
good and as much mischief as usual.'(1) Later he wrote, '[A]s the
federalists
have declined taking any part whatever in the debate about raising
an
army, the democrats begin to falter.... The great difficulty is
raising
taxes. They dare not do it. They are too cunning to risk their
popularity
by a land tax, loans &c. When they raise the taxes necessary
to carry
on a war, I shall think them in earnest, not before.'(2)
After he retired from Congress, Bigelow settled in Worcester and
became
involved in local government, serving as a justice of the peace
and clerk
of the courts in that city. Elected a member of the American
Antiquarian
Society in 1813, Bigelow was also a Councillor of the Society from
1817
to 1828. An author and poet, he submitted his work to Worcester
newspapers
throughout his life. Six essays titled 'Political Reflections,'
were published
by the Massachusetts Spy in January and February of 1812, and a
series
of articles on slavery which he signed 'A Layman' was printed in
the
Worcester Palladium in January and February of 1838.(3) In 1853,
after
his retirement from law and political service, the
seventy-seven-year-old
Bigelow and his ailing wife visited their daughter Sarah Bigelow
Adams
(1805-86) in Providence, Rhode Island, where their portraits were
painted
by the artist James Sullivan Lincoln.
Lincoln, who apprenticed as an engraver, started painting
portraits around
1837 and by the 1850s was the leading portrait painter in
Providence.(4)
Although he also painted miniatures and landscapes, his most
significant
commissions were his portraits of the state's governors, senators,
and
leading businessmen of the city. For fifty-one years Lincoln kept
a record
book of his portrait commissions, which, after 1860, also included
painted
photographs.(5) Late in life, Lincoln was elected the first
president
of the Providence Art Club and, at a retrospective exhibition of
his work,
he was titled 'the father of art in Providence.'(6)
|
|
1) December 18, 1811. Bigelow Family Papers, 1785-c. 1883,
American
Antiquarian Society Manuscript Collection. Several of Bigelow's
letters
are published in Clarence S. Brigham, 'Letters of Abijah Bigelow,
Member
of Congress to his Wife 1810-1815,' Proceedings of the American
Antiquarian
Society 40 (October 1930): 305-406.
2) Abijah Bigelow to Hannah Gardner Bigelow, January 1,
1812, quoted
in Brigham, 'Letters of Abijah Bigelow, Member of Congress, to his
Wife,
' 322-23.
3) Ibid, 307.
4) Franklin C. Clark, 'A Sketch of the Artist's Life,'
Catalogue
of the Memorial Exhibition of the Works of James Sullivan Lincoln
(Providence,
R.I.: Providence Art Club, 1888), 4-5.
5) "List of Portraits by J. S. Lincoln Painted Since
AD 1837,"
James Sullivan Lincoln Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society.
The portraits
of Bigelow, his wife, and an image of his daughter Sarah Adams are
all
listed in the entries for October 1853. They were listed as 'for
Seth
Adams,' Sarah's husband. The current location of the portraits of
Mrs.
Bigelow and her daughter are unknown.
6) Clark, 'Sketch of the Artist's Life,' 13.
|
|
|
|
