Born in Boston, John Neagle spent most of his life living and working in Philadelphia. His first instruction in art came from a schoolmate, Edward F. Peticolas (1793-1853), who later became a successful portrait painter in Richmond, Virginia. Neagle also studied briefly at the drawing school of Pietro Ancora (active c. 1800-1843), after which he became apprenticed to coachwright and painter Thomas Wilson (active early 19th cent.). Through Wilson, Neagle furthered his studies under the respected Philadelphia portraitist Bass Otis (1784-1861).

With the encouragement of Otis and other artists, Neagle set out to work professionally. Hoping to avoid competition, he traveled to Lexington, Kentucky, in search of commissions. He found that other portraitists had preceded him, however, and after passing through New Orleans, he returned to Philadelphia. There he became closely acquainted with Thomas Sully (1783-1872), whose stepdaughter he married. In 1826 Neagle sealed his reputation with a large and innovative full-length portrait depicting blacksmith Pat Lyon at his forge (1826, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts). From that year forward, Neagle had a steady flow of clients from Philadelphia's merchant and professional classes. The artist died in Philadelphia in 1865.

The Currier's Portrait of Captain Smith is thought to depict a seafaring relative of the father-and-son artists Russell (1812-1896) and Xanthus Smith (1839-1929) of Pennsylvania. Dressed in blue and white, the captain grasps a glove in one hand as he leans on the railing of a ship at sea. In the distance, another ship passes to the right while scattered clouds overhead serve as a cool foil to the sitter's ruddy features.

Like Neagle's Pat Lyon at the Forge, the Currier's Portrait of Captain Smith incorporates narrative components to add interest and drama to the subject. The addition of such storytelling details is not unusual in American portraiture, but Neagle was particularly adept at making them seem natural and believable. Where other artists tended to include narrative elements as emblematic props or as a kind of backdrop to the sitter, Neagle placed his subjects within a narrative context, performing a role suited to their calling. In Pat Lyon at the Forge, Neagle portrayed the celebrated Philadelphia blacksmith in his work clothes, holding a hammer in his grimy hand as he pauses to regard the viewer. Behind him, his apprentice works a large bellows, feeding the flames of a glowing forge. Similarly, Captain Smith turns as if he was just observing the ship on the horizon. His flushed features and gloves bespeak cold ocean winds, as do the whitecaps visible over the railing. Perhaps tellingly, Neagle does not include the telescope so frequently seen in American portraits of ship captains. Although it would be appropriate here, the telescope was something of a standard prop, and rather than risk dispelling the narrative illusion of his portrait, Neagle chose to omit the device.

The identity of the captain remains a mystery. The portrait was acquired from a descendant of Russell Smith and his son, Xanthus, both of whom were professional landscape painters during the nineteenth century. According to Henry T. Tuckerman in his 1867 Book of the Artists, the elder Smith had emigrated from Scotland while still a child. His father had been an "ingenious mechanic, excelling in the manufacture of cutlery, artist's tools, and mathematical instruments."(1) The subject of Neagle's painting is perhaps an uncle or a brother, or is quite possibly no relation whatsoever.

VSD

NOTE

1. Henry T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists, (reprint; New York: James F. Carr, 1967), p. 519.

REFERENCES

Catalogue of an Exhibition of Portraits by John Neagle. Ex. cat. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1925.

William Dunlap. A History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States. 2 vols. New York: Dover Publications, 1969.

Robert Wilson Torchia. "John Neagle, Portrait Painter of Philadelphia." Ph.D. diss. University of Pennsylvania, 1989.