hile visiting the Maine Historical Society Museum at Portland in 1989, we were fascinated by two new acquisitions of wonderful naive watercolors signed "James Osborne." Unfamiliar with this artist, and impressed by his paintings, we decided to do an in-depth study of the man and his work. The two watercolors that were the stimulus for this were family records. One, for Samuel and Lydia Libby, employs a motif seen in many family records of the period: a pair of central pillars joined at the top by an arch with a figure of the sun above, genealogical data between the pillars, and full-length standing representations of the family members on either side. Below the arch is a poem that reflects the idyllic family relationship. Inscribed in the bottom margin, at right, are the words "Drawn by James Osborne Portland. 1830," One unusual feature of this painting is the identification of each of the children by means of a small letter, corresponding to the first letter of the child's given name,
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James Osborn(e) MaineFolk Painter ARTHUR AND SYBIL KERN placed just above the head. Another, not commonly seen in family records, is the alignment of the females on one side and the males on the other. Family members stand on a stagelike structure along the periphery of which runs a low fence. In the foreground, which has been executed in miniature, are farm buildings, including a barn with rooster weathervane, a well, and trees; a thin, dark, undulating band runs along the lower border. In the background are a tombstone, urn, and willow tree, all of which were commonly employed death symbols in nineteenth-century family records. They are undoubtedly included here in remembrance of Samuel and Lydia Libby's fifth child, who was born on January 5, 1803, and died, unnamed, that same day.' The artist's fine handling of color—brown, black, white, gray, and green, with a few highlights in red—is in contrast to his inability to properly depict his subjects' feet, the result of which is that they appear to be standing on their tiptoes. The heads of the family members are all painted in a flat, uniform manner, with little modeling; each is cone-shaped, wider and round at the top and coming down to a point at the chin. In addition, each has disproportionately small lips. Not only do the faces of the women duplicate one another, but there is little difference between them and those of the men. A darker shadowing is generally present along the periphery of the subjects' clothing. In contrast to the apparent lack of concern with facial detail, the clothing shows considerable variation. This, however, is not surprising considering that what we are seeing are not true portraits. The figures depicted are
42 SUMMER 1994 FOLK ART