biografía de William J. COFFEE (1774-1846)

Lugar de nacimiento: England

Lugar de defunción: Probably in Albany, NY

Direcciones: NYC, 1816-1826; Albany, active 1827-1845

Profesión: Sculptor, still life, and portrait painter

Exposiciones: RA, London (1795-1816); American Academy (1817); NAD (1833, as J. Coffee); American Academy (1817: two terra cotta animals, an Infant Morpheus in Terra Cotta," and several paintings of animals and dead game); Apollo Gallery (1839)"

Obra: NYHS (a bust of Hugh Williamson, executed 1816)

Comentarios: Before coming to the U.S. in 1816, he worked as a terra cotta sculptor in Derby and London (from 1795). In April 1818 he executed busts of Thomas Jefferson, his daughter Cornelia Jefferson Randolph, and his granddaughter. Thereafter Coffee corresponded frequently with Jefferson. The artist advertised in New York directories as a sculptor in 1821-22 and as a portrait painter from 1821 to 1826, athough he also visited Charleston (S.C.) in 1821 and was in Newark (N.J.) in 1824. In 1827 he moved to Albany (N.Y.), where he created several bas-reliefs for the City Hall.

Fuentes: G&W; Solon, Hist. of Old English Pottery; Apollo, XLV (Feb. 1947), 51, repro.; Groce, Long-lost Sculptor"; Rutledge, "William John Coffee as a Portrait Sculptor"; Graves, Dictionary; NYHS Cat. (1974), cat. nos. 353, 2041, 2277; Cowdrey, AA & AAU; Hart, "Life Portraits of Jefferson"; NYCD 1819-22, 1824-26; Albany CD 1827-29, 1831, 1833-35, 1838, 1840-45; Munsell, Annals, V, 259; Rutledge, Artists in the Life of Charleston; Stauffer, no. 569; Dunlap, History, II, 308. "