Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Otis and Child

Joseph H. Davis

1834 · Watercolor, gum arabic, and graphite on off-white wove paper · The American Wing

Between 1832 and 1838 Davis traveled in western Maine and eastern New Hampshire painting family portraits. Little is known of his life, but a majority of scholars believe that he may have been the "Pine Hill Joe" Davis of Newfield, Maine, who executed more than 160 watercolor portraits or family records. In the present work, an elaborately penned inscription reveals that the man at left is Daniel Otis, aged forty-six; the woman is Betsy Otis, aged forty; and the child is Polly Otis, aged seven months. The most obvious individualizing touch in the portrait is Daniel Otis's newspaper, the Great-Falls Journal, which was issued between 1832 and 1836 in Great Falls, a mill town in southeastern New Hampshire, about twenty miles northeast of Portsmouth.

Artist

Joseph H. Davis

Date

1834

Medium

Watercolor, gum arabic, and graphite on off-white wove paper

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1972