Rufus Hathaway

Rufus Hathaway (1770–1822) was an American physician and folk art painter. He lived in southern Massachusetts, where he painted numerous portraits between 1790 and 1795.[1] He later studied medicine and established himself as a doctor at Duxbury.[2]

Lady with Her Pets, 1790, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hathway was born in Freetown, Massachusetts, and was the eldest of six children born to Asa Hathaway and Mary Phillips;[1] his father and grandfather were ship carpenters.[3] The family moved several times, settling in Bristol, Rhode Island in the mid-1780s.[2] The source of Hathaway's artistic training is unknown, though it is believed he may have worked as a decorative artist or apprentice ship-carver; as a painter he appears to have been self-taught.[2] He is known to have been active in the vicinity of Taunton, Massachusetts in 1790.[4] Hathaway arrived in Duxbury in 1791, and began painting portraits of members of locally prominent families. In 1795 he married Judith Winsor, the daughter of a locally important merchant. He took up medicine at this time, possibly at the behest of his new wife's family,[4] studying with Dr. Isaac Winslow of Marshfield.[5] He seems to have abandoned painting, as very few works by his hand are known after the time of his marriage,[1] although paintings dating to as late as 1808 have been documented.[4] Hathaway had twelve children by Judith; at one time the only physician in Duxbury,[5] he was highly respected in the field, and was elected Honorary Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society shortly before his death.[1] One of his granddaughters was the abolitionist and suffragist Judith Winsor Smith,[6] and surgeon Frederick Winsor was a great-nephew.[7]

Thirty-three portraits by Hathaway are known to exist, dating almost exclusively to the years between 1790 and 1795;[1] all are of relatives and friends,[8] among them the educator and politician George Partridge.[9] He also painted landscapes, portrait miniatures, and overmantels.[2][4] One genre painting, the Welch Curate of about 1800, is documented; it was adapted from an English mezzotint.[8] Furthermore, he is known to have created at least one wood carving, a figure of an eagle used to crown a temporary arch constructed to inaugurate a new bridge over the Bluefish River,[4] and he carved the frames to some of his paintings.[8]

Hathaway died of a hernia incurred while lifting a patient, traditionally held to be Ezra Weston, and is buried in the Mayflower Cemetery in Duxbury.[10] His epitaph, which he may have composed himself, relates to his career as a physician.[4] He was survived by Judith, who would go on to live to be 102, and left his heirs a little more than 700 pounds at his death.[10]

A bill of sale for six portraits of the Weston family exists, dating to 1793; it indicates that the paintings cost six pounds, and that Hathaway charged a further three shillings for the frame on the portrait of Ezra Weston.[11] In 2006, a pair of portraits, of Josiah Dean III and his wife, Sarah, were sold at Sotheby's, together fetching $380,000.[12]