Boy Holding a Book, c.1810
Oil on canvas, 26 x 22”
Unsigned
Brewster was born deaf in Hampton, Connecticut, yet by his early 20s was literate, had invented a sign language, and was painting portraits. His early work followed Ralph Earl’s full-length format, but later he preferred the newly fashionable half or bust length, for which he charged $15. An itinerant painter, he moved his home base to southern Maine in 1796 but returned often to Connecticut.
By the early 1800s he had simplified his art and developed characteristics entirely his own. The compactness of form in this portrait, the boy’s expressive eyes, and the radiance around his head make Brewster one of the finest painters in early New England.