Charles Codman: from limner to landscape painter

Magazine Antiques, Nov, 2002 by Jessica Nicoll

Neal's prediction was realized, for in the decades after his death Codman's paintings were increasingly prized and regularly exhibited as examples for Portland's emerging artists. By the 1880s, Codman was recognized "as the real pioneer of art in this city," who had laid the foundation for the flowering of a vibrant artistic community. (44) From origins that were ordinary for painters of his age, Codman had made an extraordinary contribution to crafting a new identity for American art and artists in the nineteenth century.

An exhibition entitled Charles Codman: The Landscape of Art and Culture in 19th Century Maine will be on view at the Portland Museum of Art from November 7 until January 5,2003.

(1.) Possibly Keene West Davis (w. c. 1844).

(2.) John Neal, "Fine Arts," First Exhibition and Fair of the Maine Charitable Mechanic association... (Portland, Maine, 1838), p. 39. The fair was held in Portland from September 24 to October 6, 1838.

(3.) Portland [Maine] Tribune, September 21, 1842. A second obituary, published in the Portland Transcript on October 1, 1842, states, "Mr. C. was born in Boston." Codman died in Portland on September 11, 1842. Some death notices say he was forty-one but most say he was forty-two.

(4.) Codman's gravestone no longer exists. The information on it is recorded in William B. Jordan, Burial Records, 1717-1962 of the Eastern Cemetery, Portland, Maine (Heritage Books, Bowie, Masyland, 1987), p. 27. Of the various theories, the most popular is that Codman was the son of William Codman (1765-1816) of Boston and Susannah Coffin (1773-1854) of Portland, who were married in Boston on September 27, 1791. At some point the couple moved to New York City, where William is listed as a resident in the census of 1800. See Tracie Felker, "Charles Codman: Early Nineteenth-Century Artisan and Artist," American Art Joumal, vol. 22, no. 2 (1990), p. 82, nn. 8 and 11.

(5.) John Neal, "American Painters, Charles Codman," Portland Magazine, vol. 1 (1835), p. 121.

(6.) John Neal, "Our Painters," Atlantic Monthly, vol. 23 (March 1869), p. 345.

(7.) See Carol Damon Andrews, "John Ritto Penniman (1782-1841), an ingenious New England artist," The Magazine ANTIQUES, vol. 120, no. 1 (July 1981), pp. 147-170.

(8.) Quoted in William Dunlap, A History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States, vol.2, part 1 (1834; Dover Publications, New York, 1969), p. 264.

(9.) Neal, "American Painters," p. 121.

(10.) Andrews, "John Ritto Penniman," pp. 149, 153.

(11.) Nathan Negus, memorandum book for 1819-1822, entry for January 3, 1820, Fuller/Negus Papers (Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library, Deerfield, Massachusetts; microfilm reel 611, Archives of American Art, Washington, D.C.).

(12.) Ibid., entries for September 22, 1819, April 9,1820, and April 6, 1821.

(13.) Ibid, entry for January 13, 1820.

(14.) Ibid., entries for October 21 and November 4, 1819.

(15.) Ibid., entries for November 20, 22, and December 4, 1819, and January 29, 1820.

(16.) Ibid., entries for December29, 1819, and January20, 31, and October 30, 1820.