biografía de John WATSON (1685-1768)

Lugar de nacimiento: Scotland, probably at Dumfries

Lugar de defunción: Perth Amboy, NJ

Direcciones: Perth Amboy, NJ, by 1714

Profesión: Portrait painter and draftsman

Obra: New Jersey Hist. Soc., Newark, NJ (large coll. of his drawings); NYHS; Boscobel Restoration, Inc. (Garrison-on-Hudson, NY); Am. Antiquarian Soc. (Worcester, MA)

Comentarios: Worked in various trades throughout his career, as a merchant, land speculator, money lender, and limner. Watson became known as portrait painter in 1720s working in New York and New Jersey. His success was gained primarily through his plumbago work (pencil miniatures on vellum), a type of drawing practiced in England that never really became popular in the colonies. Watson, however, did well with this medium (although only twenty drawings survive today), perhaps because the portraits were more affordable than painted miniatures and full-size oils. Some of the drawings are of classical and other ideal subjects as well. He apparently also painted numerous oil portraits but few survive and none are signed. In 1979, Mary Black argued that two paintings ó James Henderson with Two of His Daughters," 1726; and "Thysje Watson Henderson with Margaret, Tessie, and James Henderson," 1726 (Boscobel Restoration) ó both of which were formerly attributed to the Van Rensselaer Limner, were actually the work of Watson. This new attribution was supported by a notation found in Watson's notebook (NYHS) which lists portraits and records payments for works painted in 1726. Watson made a trip to Scotland in 1730 and brought back to New Jersey his niece and nephew, as well as a collection of paintings which he exhibited in his house. He owned a large amount of property in Perth Amboy.

Fuentes: G&W; Bolton, "John Watson of Perth Amboy, Artist," contains a bibliography of earlier writings on Watson; John Hill Morgan, John Watson: Painter, Merchant, and Capitalist of New Jersey (1941). More recently, see Mary Black, "Tracking Down John Watson," American Art and Antiques 2, no. 5 (September-October 1979): 78-85; Saunders and Miles, 126-31 (with repros.); Baigell, Dictionary.