Object Record
Images
Metadata
Accession # |
AC1975.37.1.02 |
Item Name |
Frame Oil Painting Portrait |
Description |
Colour oil painting (.01), a bust-length portrait of Christopher Philp (1819-1904) of Maryborough Township, by J.D. Clemence, 1896; he is wearing a black suit with waistcoat and white buttoned shirt; his face is cleanshaven apart from a very long wavy beard that begins at the base of his chin; he has light brown hair, peppered with grey, and blue or grey eyes; neutral background with suggestion of a red curtain on right side. Framed in mid-toned brown heavy oak wood frame (.02), held together with wooden pegs, with two plaster or gesso ornamental border appliques on outer and inner edges; inner part of frame closest to the painting has been gilded. Art O Written on back of painting in large handwriting, "J.D. Clemence / 1896". |
Date |
1896 |
Provenance |
Christopher Phelp emigrated to Upper Canada from Cornwall, England in 1845. Together with his wife Betty (nee Benson, originally of Northern England), they arrived in Maryborough Township in 1848, and farmed 200 acres at Lot 16, Concession 13. Of their three girls and two boys, they passed the farm to their son Richard. Artist may be John Daniel Clemence (1881- ) who was born in Drayton, Ontario, to Thomas Clemence and Susan Foreman, and would have been only fifteen at the time the portrait was painted. Census records show J.D. Clemence living with his parents in Drayton (1881) and Ottawa (1901), before marrying Elizabeth Taylor in Halton County in 1905. By that time he was living in Hamilton. In 1926, while living in Burlington, he applied for American and Canadian patents for a stapling device that he'd invented, designed for fastening containers such as fruit baskets (U.S. patent received 1927; patent drawings signed by J.D. Clemence). He's alternately described on government records over the years as a barber, woodworker, and machinist. |
Person \ Organization |
Benson, Betty Clemence, J. D. Clemence, John Daniel Clemence, Thomas Foreman, Susan Philp, Betty Philp, Christopher Philp, Richard B. Taylor, Elizabeth |
Place |
Burlington Cornwall Drayton England Halton County Hamilton Maryborough Twp. Ontario Upper Canada |
Year Range from |
1896 |
Year Range to |
1896 |
Art number |
Art 67 |
Creator \ Maker |
Clemence, J. D. |
Subjects |
Portrait |
Makers mark |
A from the blue WCMA cataloguing card, dated 1975, notes that: "the artists name is on the back of the painting / 'J.D. Clemence' / 1896 in very large writing". This inscription was not visible by 2014 due to it being covered by the acid-free backing. |
Title (art only) |
Untitled |
Art Image size |
63.5 (h) x 52 (w) cm. |
Art Frame size |
84.7 (h) x 71.5 (w) x 8 (d) cm. |