John Neagle
John Neagle
1796 - 1865
American painter. He spent most of his life in Philadelphia, where he received his first art instruction from his schoolfriend Edward F. Peticolas and more formal training from the drawing-master Pietro Ancora. About 1813 Neagle was apprenticed to the sign and coach decorator Thomas Wilson who introduced him to the painters Bass Otis and Thomas Sully, both of whom encouraged the young artist.
In 1818 Neagle set up as a portrait painter in Philadelphia. After brief spells in Lexington, KY (where he was awed by the quality of Matthew Harris Jouett’s work), and in New Orleans, he returned to Philadelphia where he remained for the rest of his career. In July 1825 Neagle and the engraver James Barton Longacre (1794–1869) travelled to Boston to visit Gilbert Stuart, who offered criticism of one of Neagle’s portraits, also sitting for his likeness (1825; Boston, MA, Athenaeum, on dep. Boston, MA, Mus. F.A.). Stuart’s portrait style influenced Neagle throughout his career.
In the autumn of 1825 Neagle received a commission for his most famous painting, Pat Lyon at the Forge (1825–6; Boston, MA, Athenaeum). It was extraordinary for its time, as it showed the subject at work in his blacksmith’s shop, in leather apron with shirt sleeves rolled above the elbows.
Early in 1826 Neagle received a commission for a series of portraits, depicting actors and actresses in costume, which were used as models for engravers. The engravings appeared as frontispieces in a series of stories, based on popular plays, entitled the Acting American Theatre. On satisfactory completion of the first eight portraits, Neagle was asked to paint more in New York. On 28 May 1826, in Philadelphia, he married Mary Chester Sully, niece and stepdaughter of Thomas Sully. During their honeymoon in New York, Neagle painted 24 portraits (most of the surviving canvases are at the Players’ Club, New York), of which 16 were engraved and issued. Neagle and Sully dominated the art of portraiture in Philadelphia. When Sully increased his prices, he always informed Neagle, who then adjusted his, but never higher than those of his mentor.
Neagle was a founder-member of the Artists’ Fund Society of Philadelphia and its president from 1835 to 1843. In 1830–31 he was a director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. About 1853 Neagle suffered an attack of paralysis, which severely affected his technique. Much of his autograph material, including his daybook, is in the manuscript collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. [Monroe H. Fabian. "Neagle, John." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed September 9, 2014, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T061546.]
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