Joseph Badger 1708 - 1765

Fragment on stretcher of Mr. Andrew Sigourney: Copley, lent by Charles S. Knox 2033.19 loan to Museum of Fine Art, Boston.

Andrew Sigourney (1702-1762) and his wife, Mary (Ronchon) Sigourney (1705-1772), Boston, (the sitters);
Charles Sigourney (1748-1806), (son);
Charles Sigourney (1778-1854), (son);
Elizabeth Carter (Sigourney) Knox (1813-1884), (daughter);
Mary Elizabeth (Knox) Tibbits (1842-1875), (sister);
Sarah Bleecker Tibbits (1866-1947), (daughter)
Thence by descent in the family;
Christie's, New York, January 18, 2007, lot 592.

Him: Wax-lined on old stretchers. Some filled craquelure on his forehead and under his right eye and right cheek. In-painting in the stock, and right-hand. Has a reflective varnish overall. There in-painting throughout the right-side of the canvas and along the bottom from left-to-right. Under florescence there appears to be streaky sections of original varnish. Appears to have been brushed across the surface creating the appearance of diagonal lines across the surface. Her: Re-stretched, wax-lined. The stretcher has some age to it but appears to date to the early 20th century. Fair amount of craquelure, in-painting under right eye, under nose, left jawline. Area of discoloration in the right forearm, some in left forearm. Significant areas of in-painting in the background- same kind of streaky diagonal in-painting. Please contact department for condition reports and information about provenance.
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Andrew Sigourney (1702-1762) married Mary Ronchon (1705-1772), the daughter of John Ronchon (d. 1761) in 1731. The Sigourney family, Huguenots who fled France, settled in New Oxford, Massachusetts before moving to Boston in 1700. These portraits were painted by Joseph Badger (1708-1765) around 1745. They were since passed down directly in the family, which included prominent citizens of Boston and Hartford, Connecticut.

Joseph Badger was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts on March 14, 1708. He came from a family of artisans and was listed in Boston after the 1730s as a painter of glazier or painter, sometimes a limner, in legal documents. According to Richard Nylander, there is evidence that he earned his living painting signs, houses, and carriages.¹ Though the source of his artistic training is unclear, Badger may have learned his craft from John Smibert and through the study of prints after the work of Sir Godfrey Kneller.²

1. Richard Nylander, Joseph Badger, American Portrait Painter, M.A. Thesis (State University of New York College at Oneonta, Cooperstown Graduate Programs, 1972), pp. 15-16.
2. Anita Schorsch, Notes on Badger portraits.