Waldo & Jewett

Samuel Lovett Waldo (1783-1861)

Samuel Lovett Waldo was born in Windham, Connecticut. He began studying painting at the age of sixteen with the Reverend Joseph Steward, who had recently opened a studio in Hartford. By the time Waldo was twenty, he had opened his own studio in that there.

In search of commissions, the young artist spent three profitable winters painting portraits in Charleston, South Carolina, which enabled him to fulfill his wish to study in England. He arrived in London early in 1806 with letters of introduction to Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley from fellow Connecticut artist John Trumbull. Under West’s guidance, Waldo improved his drawing skills and entered the Royal Academy in 1808. That year he was married to Englishwoman Elizabeth Wood and had a portrait accepted for the Royal Academy exhibition. The London years were invaluable in exposing him to works not only by the great masters but by contemporary artists as well.

Returning to America the following year, Waldo opened a studio in New York City, where he would remain for more than half a century. He earned his reputation during the War of 1812 with his portraits of war heroes. In 1815 he won a commission from the city of New York for a lifesize portrait of Alexander Macomb, victor of the battle at Plattsburgh. Waldo was elected a director of the American Academy of Fine Arts in 1817 and served until the institution closed in 1839. In 1817 he and his apprentice, William Jewett established the firm of Waldo and Jewett.

Waldo continued painting portraits and a few genre paintings on his own as well as executing portraits with Jewett. Both artists exhibited regularly at the American Academy of Design, where Waldo became a founding member in 1826. There is evidence that he returned occasionally to Connecticut for commissions and, perhaps, to visit family. He also traveled to New Orleans and, in his later years, to England.

Waldo’s skillful but sympathetic naturalism won him many commissions during his long career; he was still painting the year he died. He was generous in giving instruction and advice to young artists who came to him, and his competence was acknowledged by patrons and by fellow artists. Portraits by Waldo and by Waldo and Jewett are in major American museums.

William Jewett (1792-1874)

William Jewett, born in East Haddam, Connecticut, had been employed in the decoration of carriages in New London when he first met Waldo, who had come to that city to paint portraits. Intrigued by Waldo’s art, which he saw as finer than the ornamental work in which he was engaged, Jewett proposed grinding colors for Waldo in exchange for instruction. Jewett joined the Waldo household in New York as the artist’s assistant about 1812.

During his apprenticeship, Jewett not only helped and observed his master but also studied drawing by copying casts of antique sculpture at the American Academy of Fine Arts. Eventually, he began to paint. His first exhibition was in 1816 at the Academy, where, identified as a pupil of Samuel Waldo, he presented three still lifes of fruit.

The following year, Waldo drew up another contract, making Jewett a partner in the new firm of Waldo and Jewett. The contract did not state which artist would paint what, but it is clear from the few extant paintings that Jewett executed by himself that he never matched the skill of his master. In the majority of their work, Waldo painted the sitter's head, the most important part of the portrait, and perhaps the hands, leaving the costume and the background for Jewett. The firm left no journal or workbook, but attributions can usually be made on the basis of style in works that carry both names and often vary in quality. The execution of a painting by more than one artist was not unusual. Costume or drapery painters had been employed by artists since the Renaissance. Waldo would have become aware of the custom during his study in England. The difference in the new firm was that the master artist gave public recognition to his former pupil by adding his name to portrait they had worked on together.

The long success enjoyed by the firm was undoubtedly due to Waldo’s generosity and goodwill. The two artists continued to produce portraits jointly until Jewett’s retirement in 1854.