Portrait of a Young Girl Samuel P. Howes (1806 1881) c. 1837 
Samuel P. Howes lived and worked in Lowell, Massachusetts, from 1835 until his death, painting portraits of residents and visitors in the new industrial city. Howes was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and may have pursued divinity studies before turning to painting. He worked as a painter in Boston from 1829 to 1835, .He had traveled to Lowell with the intention of staying only a few days. Instead, Howes set up a studio and remained in the town permanently, working in oil on canvas as well as painting miniatures on ivory. His first marriage ended in divorce, and he later married a mill worker, Catherine Bennett, in 1844. In the 1840's Howes added daguerreotype likenesses to his portrait business and advertised his photographic skills more aggressively than he did his portrait painting. His studio on Merrimack Street, where he also sold pianofortes, was a fixture in the Lowell business community for more than forty years. In the 1850's and 1860's Howes increasingly turned to historical and patriotic subjects, completing a monumental Historical Panorama of the American Republic as well as likenesses of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and William T. Sherman.
Howes' style is consistent and easily recognizable. His sitters are often portrayed in half-length, seated poses with stiff, upright postures, triangular sloping shoulders with long, attenuated arms, and a draped hand. Facial features exhibit an awkward turn of the nose, with the far nostril drooping downwards, as well as an upward arch to the eyelids along with vertically elongated irises. The artist continued to paint portraits until at least 1879, at times basing his compositions on photographs. Howes died of peritonitis in Lowell in 1881. The painting is in excellent condition and a fine representation of this talented artist. (Sight size: 31" High x 23" Wide. Frame 35" x 30 3/4") ex: Peter Tillou
R11I0952618
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