Object Story: Portrait of Elizabeth Stone Coffin

John Brewster Jr. painted this portrait in 1801. He was D/deaf from birth and learned to paint from a minister who was also a painter, but never studied formally. His family was well connected. His father was a physician and served in the Connecticut General Assembly, and John Brewster Jr. used those networks to secure commissions in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, where he later moved. Prior to the development of American Sign Language (ASL), other D/deaf language systems existed, including “home signs” that were specific to each family. Given the number of portraits by him that survive, he was clearly a successful painter who was much sought after by the upper middle class in New England.

As a travelling painter, Brewster would stay with different families for many weeks at a time and sometimes put an ad in the local paper to advertise his services. He probably also used writing to communicate with the people he painted about what they wanted in their portrait. Brewster, like other itinerant painters of the time, very regularly used the same poses and props to help him save time. Around 1805 he started signing his paintings.

Below is an example of an ad that Brewster placed in the Newburyport, Massachusetts Herald and Country Gazette on December 25, 1801.

The Subject

Though the identity of the subject is uncertain, she may be Elizabeth Stone Coffin, wife of Major David Coffin, who was a relative by marriage of the painter John Brewster, Jr. Mrs. Coffin would have been thirty-nine years old in 1801 when this portrait was painted. She was the mother of seven with an eighth on the way (eventually she would have twelve children, though two died in infancy). Her husband was a highly educated minister as well as a ship’s captain, cargo ship owner, and investor who owned a distillery and a store.

Questions for Discussion

• How might portraits tell us more than we see in front of us? How are portraits reflections of the time they were created?
• What do we think the objects in this portrait mean? What makes you think that? What more are you wondering about this image? What puzzles you about the portrait?
• What might these observations tell us about the sitter's life and times as well as their contributions to their community?
• What might be the story in this image? What is the experience of the person in the image? What is missing or absent from this image? What might be happening just out of view?

Suggested Activities

• Try the Activity: Portrait Investigations to explore more background and historical connections.
• Our understanding of art is shaped by who we are, as people, and our own experiences in the world. Imagine that you could look through someone else's eyes to experience this portrait of Elizabeth Stone Coffin. What words would you use to describe this painting and how would it make you feel if you were:
  • The artist who painted this portrait
  • A person who worked for the Coffin family
  • A person who is related to the Coffin family
  • A person who grew up around portraits of their own family
  • A person who has sat for a portrait
  • An expert on early American history
    • Does who you imagine yourself to be change your perception of the portraits?
• Ask students to think about what items they might want to include in a portrait of themselves. Make a list or generate a drawing of those items. Have students consider what these objects say about who they are and how people one hundred years from now might make sense of those things.
• Take time to study the image and then jump into the portrait. You can be any size you want. Choose a certain spot you'd like to land. Why did you pick that spot?
• Take some time to draw what you see and talk about your experience:
  • I smell...
  • I hear...
  • I feel...
  • I see...
  • I taste...
  • I imagine...
• Select a character from a book that the class has read recently or a historical or famous figure that you might be studying at the time. Brainstorm words that identify this person. Briefly highlight stereotypes and caution against making assumptions or judging people based on a single characteristic. Discuss how an artist might paint a portrait of that character. If a portrait has been made of this person, compare your list of ideas with an existing image.