Brooklyn Museum Quarterly . remain amystery. Jonathan Blackburn (1700?-1765), another New Eng-land artist, deserves a place in this early group. Very lit-tle is known of his life. It has been suggested that he wasthe son of an itinerant painter and Jack-of-all-trades,Christopher B. Blackburn, and that he was born inWethersfield, Connecticut, possibly about 1700.^ We knowthat he was painting portraits in Boston from 1750 to 1765,after which date information ceases. In examining Blackburns ])icture of Mrs. Joshua Bab-cock (illustrated), while we have no knowledge of the sourcefrom which he recei
Brooklyn Museum Quarterly . remain amystery. Jonathan Blackburn (1700?-1765), another New Eng-land artist, deserves a place in this early group. Very lit-tle is known of his life. It has been suggested that he wasthe son of an itinerant painter and Jack-of-all-trades,Christopher B. Blackburn, and that he was born inWethersfield, Connecticut, possibly about 1700.^ We knowthat he was painting portraits in Boston from 1750 to 1765,after which date information ceases. In examining Blackburns ])icture of Mrs. Joshua Bab-cock (illustrated), while we have no knowledge of the sourcefrom which he received his instruction, it would seem as ifhe must have seen engravings of the beauties of Charlesthe Seconds Court by Lely and Kneller, and to have caught,in a more or less crude way, inspiration from their the pearl ornaments catching up the sleeves. Prob-ably at the time this portrait was painted there was no ^ Robert Feke, etc., p. 25. « Ibid, p. 22. ^ Art and Artists of Connecticut, by H. B. French, p. SO. 73. MRS. ADAM BABCOCK From the painting by JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, lent by Miss A. G. Chapman, for the exhibition of Early American Paintings at tne Brooklyn Museum. jewelry of this kind in the colonies and the detail must beconsidered part of his stock in trade. Paintings by Badger (1708-1765) have only latelybeen identified in any number and his name taken its placeamong our early painters of note. All we know of him isthat he was the son of Stephen and Mercy Kettle Badgerof Charlestown, Mass.; that he married in 1731 and prob-ably removed to Boston soon after, which was apparentlyhis home for the remainder of his life. He died, leavinga widow and several children, and an insolvent estate. Park, of Groton, Mass., who has made an ex-haustive research into the life and work of this artist, andfrom whom the above information was obtained, states thathe has identified about seventy portraits painted by Badger,many of which have for years been passing fo
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