More on Folwell - Philadelphia painter, engraver, hair worker and drawing master Samuel Folwell

Magazine Antiques, April, 1999 by Eleanor H. Gustafson

Davida Tenenbaum Deutsch's continuing research (see her article on pp. 566-575 of this issue) has turned up additional information that supplements her investigation of the work of Samuel Folwell, a Philadelphia painter, engraver, hair worker, and drawing master. (Her research on Folwell appeared in ANTIQUES in February 1981, September 1985, October 1986, and March 1989.) Like most artists of his time, Folwell had an extensive portfolio on which to draw for designs or inspiration. His collection seems to have been exceptionally large, no doubt reflecting his further needs as a teacher of painting and drawing and as the artist who drew designs for and painted background elements of the needlework executed at his wife's school of embroidery.(1)

Mrs. Deutsch has observed that Folwell sometimes copied motifs exactly, sometimes modified them, and sometimes combined elements from a number of sources in a single composition. Illustrated here are additional examples she has found of these practices. Eliza Newell's needlework of 1804 (Pl. I) may combine two print sources, but certainly one of them was Children Feeding Chickens [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED]. The memorial to Bridget May attributed to her daughter Mary May Kern (Pl. II) is based primarily on Virtue Weeping at the Tomb of Emma Corbett (Pl. III), although a number of modifications have been made, among them changes to the cottage, the elimination of the mountains in the background, and the addition of a pond that appears in other designs attributed to Folwell. The same figure appears in many needlework pictures attributed to Folwell as well as on an ivory set into a memorial locket labeled by him.(2)

The most popular needlework pattern that Mrs. Deutsch has linked to Folwell is a memorial with either one, two, or three figures, such as the one illustrated on p. 504, Figure 2. While it is very possible that this group of patterns is taken from a yet unknown trio of prints, they could be composites of various other sources. In this instance, for example, some elements may have been adapted from A Book of New and Allegorical Devices, for Artists in General...designed and Engraved by Garnet Terry (London, 1795), specifically the woman with the garland of flowers, who is not dissimilar to the ones in Terry's design numbers 6 on page 2 and 17 on page 3 of his book (see p. 573 of this issue, [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 10 OMITTED]).

Even more interesting, however, is the monument itself, which is much like one on a Chinese export porcelain platter of about 1800 to 1810 now in the Winterthur Museum (see Pl.IV). According to J. A. Lloyd Hyde, the platter belonged to a service made for a family in Philadelphia - Folwell's home city.(3) In yet another fascinating piece of the puzzle, Mrs. Deutsch has realized that another motif found on Chinese export porcelain also shows up in designs attributed to Folwell, specifically the view of Mount Vernon and surrounding landscape shown above (Pl.V), which is clearly related to the left-hand side of the Washington memorial needlework in Plate VI. The same motif also appears on a painted silk memorial signed by Folwell (in a private collection).(4) Although views of Mount Vernon appear on a number of Chinese export services, the one on the needlework and the silk painting is closest to the one shown here.(5)

The growing picture of Samuel Folwell portrays a man who had figured out his clientele. For the most part, they appear to have been from the emerging upper middle class in Philadelphia, eager to take on the accouterments of wealth but not able to afford to commission or buy pieces by more skilled artists such as Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Even though his own drawing talents were more limited, Folwell was able to provide his clients, rapidly and cheaply, with a whole army of decorative designs, thereby ensuring his continued success.

1 Ann Elizabeth Gebler Folwell (1770-1824) advertised on September 18, 1813, in Poulson's American Daily Advertiser in Philadelphia that "Mr. Folwell, being a Master of Drawing, those Ladies under her tuition will have a double advantage in shading, which is all the merit of the piece." See also ANTIQUES, February 1981, p. 422.

2 For example, there are two mourning embroideries with this figure, both in private collections: one is inscribed: "AFFECTION/WEEPS AND/HEAVEN/REJOICETH"; the other, "In/Memory of/An Affectionate Brother"; the urn from the latter is taken from Terry's book, p. 3, no. 25. The painted ivory memorializing Walter Brooke is illustrated in ANTIQUES, September 1985, p. 526, Fig. 1.

3 Oriental Lowestoft: Chinese Export Porcelain, Porcelaine de la Cie des Indes, 3rd ed. (Ceramic Book Company, Newport, Monmouthshire, 1964), p. 130.

4 Illustrated in Anita Schorsch, "A Key to the Kingdom: The Iconography of a Mourning Picture," Winterthur Portfolio, vol. 1, no. 1 (Spring 1979), p. 42.

5 The source for the Chinese export view of Mount Vernon has been said to have been a print of 1804 by Samuel Seymour (w. 1796-1823) after a painting by William Birch (1755-1834) (see ANTIQUES, February 1945, p. 105). However, among other differences, that engraving does not include the winding tree-lined cliff.