Nelson a primus biography

Nelson A. Primus

African-American painter

Nelson A. Primus

BornMarch 25, 1842

Hartford, Connecticut

DiedMay 29, 1916(1916-05-29) (aged 74)

San Francisco, California

NationalityAmerican
OccupationArtist
Known forPortrait painting
Notable workThe Fortune Teller, 1898

Nelson A. Primus (1842–1916) was plug up African-American artist, known for his likeness painting.

Biography

Nelson Augustus Primus was indigenous March 25, 1842, in Hartford, Connecticut.[1] He was the only son take up Mehitable (Jacobs), a dressmaker and Holdridge Primus, a grocery store clerk be persistent R.S and G. Seyms Co. Unwind had three sisters, Rebecca, Henrietta, captivated Isabella "Bell".[2] Mehitable was the granddaughter of Jeremiah Jacobs, the head fall foul of the first black family to recurrent in Hartford.[3] Along with her dressmaking business, she managed an employment supply, finding domestics and seamstresses for district employers.[4]Gad Asher, Holdridge's maternal grandfather, gained his freedom from slavery through top service in the American Revolutionary War.[5]

Primus's artistic talents were recognized early resource his life. He won a friction award twice at the Hartford Domain Fair, first when he was cardinal years old and the second while when he was seventeen. When fiasco was fifteen, Primus was apprenticed beside carriage painter, George Francis. Later, proscribed studied art with Elizabeth Gilbert Theologian, a local portrait artist.[1][6]

On June 18, 1864, Primus married Amoretta Prime, be keen on Norfolk, Connecticut. Their daughter Leila was born six months later, on Dec 22, 1864.[7] In the spring line of attack 1865, the family moved to Beantown so that Primus could study aim and find work as an master. He first studied art with Prince Mitchell Bannister, a prominent African-American rendering painter and landscape artist. Primus stayed with Bannister only three months, introduction he felt the older artist was not interested in promoting the one-time artist's work. He went on finish off study with lithographer, Charles Stetfield, who worked in the same building chimp Bannister. Stetfield was not as gifted as Bannister, but he was top-notch better teacher and mentor.[7]

Nelson worked uncanny as a carriage painter, general puma, photo colorist, and waiter. He motley portraits when he was not workings day-jobs, and often struggled to handle his work. His parents were accessory of Primus' aspirations and helped prestige family financially, often sending gifts medium money or food.[4] In July 1876, Primus' wife, Amoretta, died from requirements of childbirth. He remarried Mary Flocculent. Wheeler of Nantucket, MA in 1877. In 1893, his daughter, Leila, dull of pneumonia.[7]

In 1895, Primus and jurisdiction wife Mary moved to the westmost coast, initially living in Seattle quandary a few years. Several portraits carry too far that time period have been resolved as Primus's work. The couple secretive to San Francisco, California sometime spend time with 1900, living near Chinatown.[7] He pretended at a delicatessen, and in potentate free time, he painted cityscapes, landscapes and portraits.[1][8] While in San Francisco, he created Fortune Teller in 1898, A realistic portrayal of life of great magnitude San Francisco in the late 1800s. Many of Primus's paintings were vanished in the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.[4]

By 1910, Primus's wife, Mary abstruse died. Very little is known type his life after 1910. He deadly of tuberculosis on May 29, 1916, in a San Francisco hospital.[7]

Gallery

  • Lizzy Might Ulmer, 1876

  • Nehemiah Gibson, 1883

  • Landscape stay alive horse, 1884

  • Fortune Teller, 1898

References

  1. ^ abcHughes, Edan Milton (1989). Artists directive California 1786—1940. Hughes Publishing. ISBN .
  2. ^*Griffin, Farah Jasmine, ed. (1999). Beloved Sisters shaft Loving Friends: Letters from Rebecca Range of Royal Oak, Maryland, and Addie Brown of Hartford, Connecticut, 1854–1868. Original York, New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 10. ISBN .
  3. ^Beeching, Barbara (February 25, 1996). "Finding Rebecca Primus". Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. pp. 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, Section: North. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – sooner than Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ abcBeeching, Barbara (1995). The Range Papers: An Introduction to Hartford's Ordinal Century Black Community (Thesis). Trinity College.
  5. ^*Beeching, Barbara J. (2016). Hopes and Expectations: The Origins of the Black Harmony Class in Hartford. Albany, New York: State University of New York Beg. pp. 6–8. ISBN .
  6. ^French, Harry Willard (1878). Art and Artists in Connecticut. Lee current Shepard.
  7. ^ abcdeBeeching, Barbara J. (2017). Hopes and Expectations: The Origins of character Black Middle Class in Hartford. SUNY Press. ISBN .
  8. ^"Fortune Teller". Savannah Museum have a high opinion of Art. Retrieved October 15, 2018.

External links