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Little is known about Benjamin Chapin. He was born in Worcester,
Massachusetts,
the only son of Dr. Benjamin and Comfort Chapin. The Chapin
household
participated actively in the social and political scene in
Worcester where
Dr. Chapin worked as a local physician. Dr. Chapin was also the
town clerk
and promoted the advancement of primary education by serving on
the school
committee. Around 1834, young Benjamin left his parents' home and
moved
to New York City, where he worked as a hat presser. From 1835 to
1838,
he listed himself as a hat manufacturer in New York City
directories.(1)
The next historical notice of Chapin is his obituary, which
appeared on
May 25, 1838, in the New York Evening Post and read, 'DIED on the
24th
instant. Mr. BENJAMIN CHAPIN, aged 24 years. Funeral tomorrow
morning
at 10 o'clock, from 195 Bowery.' (2) No further explanation for
his untimely
death has been found. His widow, Alice, continued to list herself
in the
New York directories until 1840.
The 1838 date inscribed on the reverse of this portrait by the
artist
reveals that the image was commissioned towards the end of
Chapin's life
or, possibly, was executed posthumously. The sitter is dressed in
the
standard attire of a gentleman of business, a black long coat,
vest, and
cravat with a white shirt. On the table at his side rests the
emblem of
his profession, a black top hat, carefully inverted to protect the
curving
brim.
The painter of Chapin's portrait, William Hillyer, was well
established
in New York by 1838. He exhibited three portraits at the 1833
exhibition
of the American Academy and listed himself in the 1837-1839 New
York directories
as a 'portrait painter.' During that decade several of Hillyer's
portraits
were reproduced as lithographs by New York printmakers.(3) Around
1845,
Hillyer became a partner in a portrait firm, where he continued to
produce
full-scale and miniature portraits.(4)
Hillyer's portrait of Chapin passed through several generations
of the
family. Grace K. Morse, who with her husband presented the
portrait to
the American Antiquarian Society, recalled, 'For many years the
portrait
hung in the Chapin home in Auburn (my relations') and was given to
me
about 1945 by the two remaining Chapin sisters.' The Morses, who
were
friends of AAS Director Clifford K. Shipton, stated, 'We would
like to
give this portrait to the American Antiquarian Society and we feel
it
would be a worthwhile portrait for you to have there.'(5)
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1) Edwin Williams, ed., New York as It is in 1834
(New York, 1834), and
Thomas Longworth, American Almanac, New York Register and City
Directory
(New York: 1835 through 1838).
2) New York Evening Post, (May 25, 1838), 3.
3) Lithographs after Hillyer's portraits of Dr. Samuel
Thomson and the Reverend
David Millard are preserved in the American Antiquarian Society's
Graphic
Arts Collection.
4) George C. Groce and David H. Wallace, The New York
Historical Society's
Dictionary of Artists in America 1564-1860 (New Haven: Yale
University
Press, 1957), 317. Portraits by William Hillyer Jr., can be found
in the
collections of the New York Historical Association, Cooperstown,
New York,
and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg,
Virginia.
5) Grace K. Morse to American Antiquarian Society, August
3, 1962, American
Antiquarian Society Archives
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