Lot 731: Portrait of a Boy

JOHN BRADLEY (ACTIVE 1830-1840), CIRCA 1835
Portrait of a Boy
oil on canvas
44½ x 25½ inches

Kennedy Galleries, New York

New York City directories show that prior to 1848, Bradley worked as a portrait painter, as well as a portrait miniaturist, at several addresses. From 1836-37, he is listed at 56 Hamersley; from 1837-44 at 128 Spring Street; and from 1844-47 at 134 Spring Street. All addresses comprise the neighborhood of present day Houston Street. Nothing is known of Bradley after 1848.

One of the most intriguing characteristics of Bradley's work is his frequent outlining in white or lighter tones of details such as faces, hands, and occasionally costumes---revising the more generally accepted procedure of contouring figures by shading the edges, a technique that in its simplest form results in dark outlines. Posed against dark backgrounds, Bradley's figures thus achieve the form of "crisp silhouettes" and a "strangely luminous quality" described by commentators on his style. (See Rumford, et al, American Folk Portraits: Paintings and Drawings from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center,(Boston, 1981), pp. 61-64).