many pardons for neglecting my most favorite portrait master of all time...

Writing the history of other past ancestors has taken up much of my time, (with more to come).  You can find my book (with two other authors) on Amazon. Yet rest assured that my love of GS and his sitters, remains unabated.  Look for more posts in the year ahead!

From Medicine Man to Medical Doctor

The Medical History of Early Santa Clara Valley

Elizabeth Ahrens-Kley

Gerald Trobough

Michael Shea

****************************************

Santa Clara County of course is home of the famed Silicon Valley here in California.

You can find more information on my gt gt grandfather Benjamin Cory MD in this blog, and in my essay online which won first place in the essay contest sponsored by the "California Pioneers of Santa Clara County" 

June 2011

Just a reminder, it was the Doctor's son, my gt grandfather Lewis Lincoln Cory born in San Jose California 1861, who married a girl from Rahway NJ.  Carrie [Marin] Cory, {click on link to the left to see the image of my gt grandmother Carrie, gt grandaughter of Phoebe Meeeker who received the GS portrait from her twin brother Samuel; the genetics in the facial similarity between Carrie and the portrait are amazing; a demonstration of the skill of GS} brought the GS portrait of Samuel Meeker to California from NJ due to this marriage and the fact that she had two sons and 3 daughters and her two Martin sisters had no children.  Due to this unusual "travelling" from the east to west coast, the portrait was lost to those who were attempting to locate and document all GS portraits.

What a twist of fate, that Samuel Meeker is now with me, his fine and fascinating history fully explored.

To see Carrie Cory's position in the line of provenance, click here.

The semblance slays me. Pops and Samuel.

My grandfather Benjamin Hyde Cory (1896-1983). Born in Fresno, Ca.
Here he is as a young man, most likely during his undergrad years at Princeton. He later graduated from Harvard Law and returned to California. Add about 20 years, turn his face in the same direction as Meeker.
The lips, the nose, the forehead, the sleepy lidded eyes. Bit of a wave to the hair. His great great grandmother was Phoebe Meeker, twin sister of Samuel.

A thoroughly DAZZLING art-historical mystery; was The Circus Rider John Bill Ricketts or Jean Baptist Breschard? Read on, if interested!

My last two posts have described the painting by Stuart named The Circus Rider, and current art historians are (at least officially) unanimous that the sitter is no other than John Ricketts. Yet, in an indeed surprising development, Peter Breschard objects to this designation with much indignation, and in fact his evidence that the circus rider is NOT Ricketts, if not incontrovertibly solid as of yet, is just as COMPELLING, to my mind. Keep in mind that Mason (1894), identified the portrait as "Breschard, the circus-rider".

Adding to this high level of confusion are two inscriptions on the painting, generally agreed to have been added at a later date: (lower left) "Portrait of / Mr. Rickarts / Horse Eqestraine / Friend of the Artist / Gilbert Stuart" & (lower right) "Portrait of Rickarts / Horse Eqestrian / An Intimate Friend of / Gilbert Stuart." These interpretations are taken from "American Paintings of the 18 century" by Ellen G. Miles, National Gallery of Art, Washington. However, perhaps, these inscriptions themselves can be subject to another interpretation? In fact consider the French name Breschard: with a French hard pronunciation of the first letter B as P, and the last letter d as t, the name Breschard is pronounced and could be spelled as Preschart, and Lo and Behold to my mind, that left inscription looks incredibly like "Preschart", and NOT "Rickarts". The second insription to my eye also looks as if the name of the sitter begins with a "B" and ends with one t. Lawrence Park shows the spelling to be "Portrait of / Mr. Rechart /..." Which of course also sounds like the French pronunciation of Breschard. Mason, as well as Park, listing the sitter to be Breschard?

The story in short; John Bill Ricketts in his brief flash of fortune in America (he was from England) lasting less than 10 years, achieved fame and fortune by his magical ability to peform fantastical acts of daring on his well trained horses - using outlandish tricks, and later featuring other circus performers such as tightrope walkers and clowns. "Long before circuses took on the odor of a crude and common entertainment, Ricketts ... had an air of snob appeal; embraced by all classes, his circus became an especially prestigious venue for the right people to be seen at. After all, Washington, an unabashed fan, attended from time to time through his tenure in office. And the President and Ricketts regularly accompanied each other on rides through the city out into the countryside. Ricketts became such a prominent celebrity that Gilbert Stuart, Washington's portraitist, painted Ricketts, too. Washington even allowed Ricketts to put Jack - the famed white steed he rode through the American Revolution - on display in the amphitheater. Hence, a certain patriotic panache and status boost came with every seat. ......In 1797, Ricketts marked Washington's retirement with a special performance, and later that year, he performed for his friend's presidential successor, John Adams." http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=815

Thus Ricketts meets that special quality which characterizes the majority of Stuart's sitters, a man of action and accomplishment who hobnobbed with the right people, those in the elite and elegant, well-funded social circles. He was in the right place (Philadelphia), and the right time period to cross paths with Stuart. He was multi-talented; besides performing, he built his own circus structures. Just the type of man who might appeal to our artist, who knew so much about everything. And more compelling, the most powerful evidence: The Provenance lists the brother of John Ricketts, Francis Ricketts, as being the first owner (Brown 1861, 320.) The following has been speculated by Ellen Miles: "Stuart undoubtedly painted Ricketts' portrait in Philadelphia, where the circus was based. The portrait remained there, unfinished, after Ricketts left for the West Indies." ("American Paintings of the 18 century" p 210). Is it possible that Stuart didn't complete the portrait, and so whimsically painted the horses' head created from the background, due less to anger than nostalgia that a good friend was gone? Did the portrait remain unfinished because the talented John Ricketts incurred catastrophic financial loss when his circus rotunda building burned to the ground in 1799? His brother was last recorded in the United States in 1810, when he was with the Boston Circus ("American Paintings of the 18 century" p 210), and thus the portrait would have passed to him when John met his death on the oceans in 1803.

But, is it possible the painting was done at a later time, that it was stopped out of frustration with the sitter (Breschard), and that by this time Stuart had become increasingly more willful and temperamental with his sitters corresponding to the extent of his fame? “...the artist, becoming angry at the equestrian, who gave him a good deal of trouble by his want of promptitude and the delays which occurred, is said to have dashed his paintbrush into the face of the portrait, declaring that he would have nothing more to do with him.” J. Thomas Scharf and T. Westcott, History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 (Philadelphia: L.H.Everts and Co. 1884), Vol II, p 1044

The Circus of Pépin and Breschard

Pépin and Breschard were the premiere performers in the U.S. from 1808 until 1815. At left is a playbill for this circus. Our Jean Breschard clearly is a prominent performer, if not the owner alongside Mr. Pepin.

In the Provenance for the Circus Rider shown above, a Peter Grain is listed as the next owner after Francis Ricketts, "Purchased at auction around 1853 by Peter Grain." Peter Grain was an artist, known for his "panorama paintings, landscapes, portraits, theatrical designs, as well as also being a playwright and architect; he was the author of at least one stage play. His family was involved in theatrical design in New York, Philadelphia and other major American cities for at least two generations." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Grain

"American Paintings of the 18 century", in 'Notes' on Peter Grain..."A painter, was born in France around 1786... and came to the US sometime before 1815. After living in various American cities, including New York and Charleston, he settled in Philadelphia around 1850 with his family..."
The playbill above shows that Grain could have crossed paths with Breschard in "Charlestown".

In the playbill below, found and kindly provided to me by Peter Breschard, is incontrovertible evidence that in fact Peter Grain knew Breschard in c 1809! Grain was an actor in the play "Billy" performed on this summer eve. Is it not likely that Peter Grain was the one who identified, or at a minimum WOULD BE ABLE TO IDENTIFY the sitter as Jean Breschard, as he knew and even worked with this circus artist? Thus we have reasonable, logical evidence as to HOW the portrait was identified as Breschard. On the basis of this knowledge,...which possibly may not be known by the (current) experts?... might a new look at the identifcation of THE CIRCUS RIDER be in order? Afterall, Someone identified the portrait, because there are the inscriptions, which to my eye look like a French pronunciation of Breschard. How solid, in fact, IS the Brown attribution that Francis Ricketts was the first owner? How credible is this source? Is he known for accuracy? (Thomas Allston Brown, "A Complete History of the Amphitheatre and Circus, from its earliest date, with sketches of some of the principal performers," New York Clipper 8 (19 January 1861).

For more information on Peter Breschard, who has used original sources in his in-depth investigation on the identification of the sitter in this portrait, he can be found at http://brasseriebreschard.blogspot.com/. He plans on writing a book on this topic and hopes to interest a publisher. He would enjoy any input on the subject!

And thus, I have exhausted all effort here, and leave it to the experts & other researchers to thrash this out, and perhaps take a second look at this re-identification from Breschard to Ricketts.
And in the meantime I have the following suggestion. Perhaps there are more descendents out there, from both the Ricketts and Breschard families. In my own case, I was suddenly astonished to notice that there were remarkable similarities between Meeker and some members of my family; below is an example and more will follow. Check the nose! the chin! can you look at younger pictures of your ancestors and find remarkable/notable similarites to the portrait of Ricketts/Breschard? Send them to me! Lets fly with this mystery, and not be stuck with one mind-set.....

Never forget Stuart's ability to nail an almost photographic image to the canvas.................

Below Benjamin Hyde Cory (1896-1983) my grandfather, gg-grandson of Phebe Meeker (twin sister of Samuel Meeker.)

the dimple in the bottom lip... the slightly upraised peak of the right side of the upper lip...rounded chin

~

~

~

~

History of the ownership (PROVENANCE) of Mr. Meeker ...& lovely Edith, and a bit more of my own story

Edith (sister of my grandfather Ben Cory) moved back into the old Victorian in Fresno after my gt grandparents both were passed away, and she then by default was in possesion of Mr. Meeker. My first memory of the portrait was when it was with Edith but by then, unfortunately, the old Victorian which had taken up a block in downtown Fresno had been torn down and Edith was living on a farm in the nearby countryside, in Clovis. In her older age she was taken care of by two "Oakies." My mom told me that yes Edith did get married, but she had fallen out of a carriage and could not have children. (For the story of my first memory of the portrait click here.)

PROVENANCE with notes

•Given by the sitter Samuel Meeker to his twin Phebe Meeker (1763-1815) Phebe married 1) Cochran (merchant, first business partner of Samuel) and a second marriage to 2) Job Brookfield. [It can be presumed that the portrait was gifted, and not inherited, as Samuel lived many years longer than Phebe. At Phebe's death the portrait was in her posession and passed to...

•Daughter Mary Brookfield (1807-after 1856) m. John Ludlum Martin a physician in Rahway, NJ

•Son Thomas Mulford Martin (1831-1917) of Rahway NJ [a bookbinder, see his photo here]

•Oldest daughter Emma Martin of Princeton, NJ (lends portrait to Philadelphia Museum of Art, see sticker on back of painting regarding this) presumably upon her death the portrait goes to sister Carrie Martin Cory (1862-1938) & portrait is taken to California. Carrie is married to Lewis L. Cory of San Jose, Ca. Lewis Cory (Princeton and Columbia Law) was a prominent corporate litigation attorney in the city of Fresno, Ca. He argued cases before the US Supreme Court. [for a family photo of Carrie and her husband Lewis Lincoln Cory click here] Lewis was second son of Benjamin Cory, who traversed the plains (click here for his story and an original letter) in 1847 and was the first doctor in San Jose, Ca.

•Daughter of Carrie and Lewis (pictured at the top of the post), Edith Cory (1884-1976) (no issue)

•Niece Carolyn Elizabeth Cory (1928-) [daughter of Edith's brother Benjamin Hyde Cory (1896-1983) my grandfather]-Carolyn is my mother, {click here to see marriage photo} , who met my dad John Ahrens at Stanford University. They were married in the spring of '49 in Carmel, Ca.

•Daughter Elizabeth Ahrens-Kley (me); Santa Cruz, Ca. I married a German Willy Kley, now a professor of astrophysics at the University of Tuebingen, Germany. Our daughter Lily lives with me here in Santa Cruz. She is now applying to different Universities, Princeton will be one as that is where Pops (Benjamin Cory) and his dad (Lewis Cory) both graduated.

I have two brothers John and Paul, but neither were interested in the old portrait. Too bad for them, but lucky for me! ...and lucky for Samuel, for who knows where he could have ended up, without my research!! To discover an unknown Gilbert Stuart at this late date, how cool is that!

~

~

~

For graphic of the family tree from Carrie to Samuel Meeker click here (note that the father is also a Samuel Meeker.)

~

Why, how did the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Samuel Meeker come to California; the uncommon circumstances!

Westward Ho!!

In the previous post we learned about my grandfather Pops, born to Carrie and Lewis Cory. Carrie was born to the Martin family of the Westfields, NJ and it was through Carrie that the portrait made its way west; she married Lewis Lincoln Cory, born in 1861 in San Jose, Ca to Sarah (Braly) Cory and Dr. Benjamin Cory, pictured above.

The story of Dr. Benjamin Cory

(1822-1896)

Dr. Ben Cory is known as the first horse and buggy doctor in San Jose, California. This branch of the Cory family stems from John Cory of Southold born in 1611 in England, eventually John Cory II, John Cory III, Joseph etc settled in New Jersey. Dr. Ben’s father Dr. James Manning Cory went “west” to Ohio, where he established his medical practice and raised a family of 7 children (not all reaching adulthood). Son Ben was born in Oxford OH in 1822. After receiving his medical credentials from the Medical College of Ohio, Ben dreamed of leaving. In a letter to his cousin Fanny, Nov 30. 1846, he wrote: “There are seven doctors here, but I am confident that I do more practice than any of them, not excepting my Father—the ‘foolish’ people seem to have confidence in me. We will book about 3000 dollars this year but on account of the poor pay, changeable nature of the climate, small fees and a few other things, it is my intention to remove to Mississippi or Louisiana next spring. Father’s health [Dr. James Manning Cory] is rather poor every winter, and it would be well for him to reside in the South during the winter—which is an aditional motive for me to remove, so that I can have a home for him.” Ben was only a young 23 years old when he received his M.D. in Cincinnati and only 25 when he set foot in California for the first time. Tales of the warmth and beauty, and not least opportunity, to be had in California clearly provided enough motivation for the young adventurer to set out for the west vs the south. He chose not to set up practice in San Francisco, as there were already too many doctors (two). This bold and adventurous spirit traversed the Plains by foot, with two companions, alongside a wagon loaded with food, ammunition, books and medicines, pulled by four oxen in the spring of 1847, before gold was even discovered. He opened up his practice in the dirt of the Plaza, in a tent in what was then only a Mexican pueblo. He eventually married, had eight living children, and made his permanent home in San Jose, residing in the house he built in 1864 at 435 South Second Street until the end of his days.




The image of the ‘shack’ (top above) is the earliest known photo of Dr. Ben Cory’s office in San Jose. The second image is of the Santa Clara County Hospital. Ben and his brother Andrew Jackson Cory (who arrived in Ca 10 years later and became the county’s chief medical officer in 1871) led the campaign to build this new county medical facility, both of these men recognizing the urgent need for services to the poor and indigent and the importance of charity health care in society.


Dr. Ben Cory age 70, in this family photo from 1892, and his wife Sarah Braly; to the right under the black arrows are my gt grandfather Lewis L. Cory and wife Carrie (how the portrait comes to Ca). The red dots show Lewis’ brother and sisters (children of the Doctor and his wife Sarah.) Sarah’s mother Susan (Hyde) Braly is the matron in the center of the photo. The Braly family also came across the plains in the same year 1847, and settled in Santa Clara county.



The photo is of downtown San Jose in the year 1906. Although the Doctor is by now deceased, one can see that cars are just beginning to arrive on the scene, there is no rhyme, reason or logic in the driving on the street. The main point here is that one must picture how, for decades, the good Doctor made his rounds, over hill and dale, in the beginning by horseback, and later in the luxury of a horse and buggy! (click on the photo to have a great view!)

My gt grandfather Lewis, father of Pops [see post before this one] and son of Dr. Ben, looked for opportunity in the up and coming area of Fresno. Before settling there, back east at Columbia Law School, he met his wife Carrie Martin. The circumstances of this meeting are not known to me, but I suspect these two families remained in close contact through the years (the Cory family being well-established in the Westfields). Carrie’s father Thomas, was a bookbinder in Rahway, New Jersey. Lewis and Carrie were married on 17 Oct 1882, in Rahway.

The good Doctor Ben, singer of hymns and providing services in exchange for eggs, chickens or gold dust, or for free, died in 1896.

Next: the whole letter from Nov 30 1846 from Ben to cousin Fanny;
Who is that doctor to whom you have given your sympathies? What kind of a bargain did you make with him? Did you make an equal exchange of hearts?

and a letter to his brother Andrew Jackson, from the gold mines.

March 1, 2009

Today is my Mom's Birthday, she turns 81. The family celebrated yesterday, and afterwards lovely Lily and I went over to my cousin Craig's to visit with family in San Francisco. There we talked, walked in Golden Gate park, and, then, well, I felt like Sir Joshua Reynolds--the Royal Academy president and principal painter to King George III, who sat for Stuart in 1784, when he was 61. To quote a description of this portrait from the book Gilbert Stuart by Barratt & Miles: "he [Joshua] is aged, weak in the jaw, obviously deaf, and shown without allusion to his profession. ...Sir Joshua rejected the image, protesting that ‘if [Stuart's portrait] was like him, he did not know his own appearance!’ ” Yet despite being discouraged with the piercing accuracy of Stuart's portrayal, it seems that this did not prevent Reynolds from later recommending Stuart to other customers, and from Gilbert Stuart... "On the contrary, the picture endeared Stuart to Reynolds."

But back to my mom for the moment. She is pictured above at her marriage in Carmel, Ca April 1949... Pops is behind her; who many years later lived with my parents before passing away, and because of his request, the Portrait was hung in my mom's small sitting room. These two are direct descendents of Phebe Meeker, twin sister of the sitter. Pop's mother Carrie brought the Portrait from New Jersey to California. Nowadays mom is healthy, reasonably wealthy, and certainly wise, and we had a great Mexican feast to celebrate.
Here is a small bio she wrote for the Senior complex where she now happily resides;
My name is Carolyn [Cory] Ahrens, and I’m a native Californian going back three generations. I was brought up in Carmel, attended Carmel High, UC Berkeley, and graduated from Stanford in 1949. There I met my late husband John, and we had three children before moving to Asia because of John’s job with Bank of Anerica. We lived a total of 17 years in Tokyo, Ashiya, Bangkok, Bombay, and Manila. I very much enjoyed exploring new cultures, making new friends, and travelling throughout Asia and Europe. After we returned, we settled in Menlo Park, and about a year ago I moved to Santa Cruz where all my children, and grandchildren are presently living. I enjoy family, bridge, reading, and taking walks with my dog Sophie.

Sketch by Craig Marshall, Feb 28, 2009

to continue: After the birthday lunch Lily and I went to Craig's, and my artist cousin proceeded to oblige me with a demonstration of his incredible talent. And I was obliged to reflect on how Sir Joshua Reynolds felt when he saw his portrait. My thoughts were ............I can relate !.....

What has happened to the lovely lushness of YOUTH ?
But, the sketch also has something super endearing about it.
I will frame it~

My QUINCY CONNECTION

& the importance of Art in the suitable upbringing of a 'lady', & an introduction to family lines of interest in the tale of the Portrait, & ...Elocution?...


My gt grandmother was Bessie (Elizabeth [Edelen] Leavitt b. Oakland, Ca 1879-1956). Her daugher Susan Leavitt married Benjamin Cory (Pops, who requested my mother to “hang the old Gentleman” entry Feb 17). Benjamin’s mother brought the Meeker portrait from NJ to CA.
In Bessie’s DIARY she writes of her grandmother (Gammie) and the connection to the Qunicy family of Boston (entry Feb 18). Bessie, sister Susan, mother Emma and grandparents Hannah and Henry lived in San Francisco. (Emma was divorced at age 20, 1880, in San Francisco, from Lemuel Edelen~)

“Gammie (Hannah Marsten Francis b. about 1832) hailed from New England and was inordinately proud of the fact she boasted some of the best connections in Boston—the Qunicys, no less.
A cousin, Henrietta Quincy often came west to visit us. (c. late 1880s to 90s, I have not traced the precise identity of Henrietta Quincy nor her relationship Hannah, but they were clearly close for ‘Etta’ to feel comfortable taking such a lengthy trip from Boston to San Francisco more than once.) She was a rare soul bent on improving herself and all others with whom she came in contact. On her first visit to us she was absorbed in painting. She had studied art abroad and Gammie always insisted might have made a name for herself as an artist except for her other manifold interests. They included the study of French, German and Italian, elocution, photography, piano, banjo, mandolin and guitar. Under Cousin Etta’s supervision we girls (Bessie, sister Susan) gained a smattering of French, German, elocution and music very early in life.
We always loved having Cousin Etta visit us, she was so unpredictable. One winter she would go touring the country painting the missions, on another she would cover the same territory photographing them (in 1889, George Eastman invented film with a base that was flexible, unbreakable, and could be rolled). One year she would be completely engrossed in the study of foreign languages, the next she’d spend all her spare time tinkering with some instrument.
So we never knew whether our house would be in its customary apple pie order or littered with painting paraphernalia, the equipment for developing blue prints, sheet music text books or the equipment needful for any other pet hobby our cousin might be riding at the time. Of one thing we could be reasonably certain, some time during the day we girls would be called upon to find Cousin Etta’s glasses! But in spite of her eccentricities our Boston relative was an endearing person and she fitted so well into our menage that she really seemed like one of us, and she was always welcome to come and go at her own sweet will."

A first memory of the Portrait

I have a first, vague memory of seeing the Portrait. Back in the 1960ies, my family must have visited Aunt Edith, sister of my mom’s father Ben Cory, on a sunny day in Clovis California; she moved there after selling the huge Victorian Cory family house in Fresno. She ushered us into a large room, there was a piano, she pointed to the Portrait and told mom she would inherit it ‘and some silver’. I suppose everyone would have been more pleased if something more “substantial” had been indicated.
Fast forward to 1979. Mom and Dad returned from Bombay India and settled in Menlo Park California. Within months Ben (mom’s father) had moved in. My grandmother Susie had passed away, Edith was long deceased, and Pops was alone in Carmel. Soon enough Pops asked Mom if she would please hang the “old gentleman.”
The Portrait was unwrapped and saw the light of day after several years, and thereby really for the first time, the portrait became known to my family; but his identity was unknown, the artist was said (by the family) to be Peale (who?), and no one really cared about the old-fashioned quirky portrait except for Pops. I figure it brought memories of his childhood in Fresno, when the portrait hung in the Victorian. Probably in the parlor.
Hanging in the tiny sitting room, the Portrait was not my mother’s typical décor, which consisted mainly of unusual and prized Japanese art— 3 antique gold-leafed screens, two Tansu chests, a fine bronze sculpture of a lion, vases, netsuke….my father John had been born in Kobe Japan, his father took the family there in the 30s because of the Japanese green tea business. My own family had lived in Tokyo and Ashiya from 1962-67.
In Menlo Park the Portrait caused little excitement over the years. I married and moved to Germany. We would all laugh when mom’s dog Sophie would sometimes bark up at Samuel in the light of dusk.
When I returned to the USA in 2004, I began to research family lines, the Portrait, and the identity of the artist. Time-lines for Peale worked in the beginning, but as I identified the sitter more precisely and studied the different artists, I realized that Samuel Meeker had been painted by no other than….Gilbert Stuart.

From my cousin Craig Marshall, artist and teacher of illustration at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco 2/10/09:
Beth! The blog is way cool! Do you know that I have ALWAYS felt deep down that the portrait of Samuel Meeker by Gilbert Stuart reminded me of the Cory side of your family! This is totally amazing. Thank you for confirming what has been at the back of my mind for many years. I have always admired Stuart's skill. You are quite the sleuth. This could be a start to a new profession; lineage tracing to famous and not so famous paintings. …..