Frances Knowlton Chickering

Frances Knowlton Chickering

Ruth Henshaw Bascom Phillipston, Massachusetts March 1830
Pastel on paper
84.35.2
Friends of the Museum Purchase

Ruth Henshaw Bascom offered her talents as an artist to paint watercolor portraits on paper. This medium made owning a copy of one’s likeness more affordable, compared to the more traditional and expensive portrait done in oil paints on canvas. Bascom, a self- taught artist, is estimated to have produced nearly 2,000 likenesses in her lifetime, making portraiture accessible to more people than was previously available in the 18th century.