Charles Cromwell Ingham

Anonymous sale, Aldridges of Bath, 26 July 2022, lot 179 (as English School, 19^th century);

Anonymous sale, Prinknash, Chorley's Auctioneers, 6 February 2024, lot 638 (as American School, 19^th century);

Private collection, UK.

This recently rediscovered portrait depicts Catherine Maria Sedgwick (1789–1867), one of the most influential American authors of the 19^th century. Born into a prominent Massachusetts family, Sedgwick was the daughter of Judge Theodore Sedgwick, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Pamela Dwight. She is best known for her novel Hope Leslie (1827), a work that challenged prevailing attitudes toward Native Americans and women, and is now considered a significant example of early feminist and historical fiction in the United States. Sedgwick's other notable works include A New-England Tale (1822), Redwood (1824), The Linwoods (1835), and Clarence (1830). Her writing often explored themes of moral responsibility, religious tolerance, and social reform. In addition to her novels, Sedgwick wrote essays, children’s literature, and biographical sketches, including Means and Ends, or, Self-Training (1839), which offered guidance on self-improvement and education, especially for women.

This painting closely resembles a lost portrait by Charles Cromwell Ingham (1796–1863) that was reproduced in Sedgwick's autobiography, written by her great-niece Nathalie Sedgwick Colby.¹

Ingham, born in Dublin and trained at the Dublin Society’s School, emigrated to the United States in 1816. He rose to prominence in New York as a founding member of the National Academy of Design and a noted portraitist. It is possible Ingham painted this portrait during a documented stay in Boston in the winter of 1842–43, when Sedgwick was at the height of her literary career.

¹ https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/a90eb168-6684-2d34-e040-e00a1806399f