Robert Feke ( 1705 or 1707 1752) was an American portrait painter born in Oyster Bay,

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. According to art historian Richard Saunders, "Feke’s impact on the development of Colonial painting was substantial, and his pictures set a new standard by which the work of the next generation of aspiring Colonial artists was judged." In total, about 60 paintings by Feke survive, twelve of which are signed and dated.

Life and career

One of Robert Feke's grandmothers was

Elizabeth Fones Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett (21 January 1610 – c. 1673) was an early settler in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1640 Fones, with her then-husband Robert Feake, were founders of Greenwich, Connecticut. Wolfe (2012) She married her ...

. Little is known for certain about his life, particularly his early years. Only one work by Feke, a portrait of a child, is datable before 1741.Saunders, Richard H. "Robert Feke". Oxford Art Online. Retrieved July 15, 2012 In that year he moved to Boston, where he painted ''Isaac Royall and Family'' (1741), a group portrait which borrows its composition from John Smybert’s ''The Bermuda Group'' (1729). Feke's works also show the influence of John Wollaston. From 1741 until 1750, Feke worked in Boston,

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...

, and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

, painting wealthy merchants and landowners.Myron & Sundell 1969, p. 30 The latest record of his activities is August 26, 1751; suggestions by Feke's early biographers that he died in

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estima ...

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have not been substantiated. Feke's paintings are known for their sobriety and uniformity, but also for their rich colours and painterly boldness.

Works

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...

Portrait
( 1746) at the

Fogg Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

, Harvard University Portrait Collection *

Charles Apthorp Charles Apthorp (1698–1758) was a merchant and slave trader in Boston, colonial Massachusetts. Apthorp managed his import business from Merchants Row, and "in his day he was called the richest man in Boston." He also served in the employ of th ...

Portrait
1748, oil on canvas, Cleveland Museum of Art American * Grizzell Eastwick Apthorp
Portrait
(Mrs. Charles Apthorp) (1748) at the

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...

Mrs. John Banister
1748, oil on canvas, The Detroit Institute of Arts * William Bowdoin
John Channing
c. 1747–49, oil on canvas 127 x 102, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Mary Channing (Mrs. John Channing)
c. 1747–49, oil on canvas 127 x 102, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston * Tench Francis, Sr.
Portrait
at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Captain Alexander Graydon
1746, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art American Museum of Fine Arts *

Thomas Hopkinson Thomas Hopkinson (April 6, 1709 – November 5, 1751) was a lawyer, public official, and prominent figure in colonial Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Early life Thomas Hopkinson was born in London, on April 6, 1709, the son of Mary Hopkinson, and T ...

Portrait
at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

Ralph Inman Ralph Inman (1713–1788) was a merchant in 18th-century Boston, Massachusetts, with a residence in Cambridge. During the American Revolution he supported the British. Portraits of Inman were made by Robert Feke and John Singleton Copley. ...

* Isaac Royall and Family
Portrait
1741, Historical & Special Collections, Harvard Law School Library *

Edward Shippen Edward Shippen (1639, Methley, West Yorkshire, England – October 2, 1712, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was the second mayor of Philadelphia, although under William Penn's charter of 1701, he was considered the first. Early life Edward was bor ...

Portrait
of Chief Justice, at the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin ...

Isaac Winslow
c. 1748, Oil on canvas 127 x 102, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Gallery

File:Robert Feke 001.jpg, ''Isaac Royall and Family'' (1741),

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

File:Bowdoin.jpg, ''Portrait of

William Bowdoin William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of ...

'' (1748) File:Mrs Charles Willing by Robert Feke 1746.jpg, ''Mrs. Charles Willing'' (1746),

Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware. Pronounced “winter-tour," Winterthur houses one of the richest collections of Americana in the United States. The museum and estate were the home o ...

File:Robert Feke - Portrait of a Woman - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Portrait of a Woman'' (),

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...

File:SusannahBoutineau.JPG, '' Susannah Boutineau'' (1748) File:Robert Feke - Ralph Inman (1713-1788) - 2004.219 - Fogg Museum.jpg, ''

'' (1748) File:Tench Francis by Robert Feke.jpg, '' Tench Francis Sr.'' (1746),

File:Robert Feke - Isaac Winslow - 42.424 - Museum of Fine Arts.jpg,

Isaac Winslow Isaac Winslow ( – December 14, 1738) was an American politician and military officer who lived in Marshfield, Massachusetts. A member of the prominent Winslow family of the Plymouth Colony, he served as a civil and military official in a pe ...

(),

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

Notes

Biography at infoplease.com
* * Myron, Robert, and Abner Sundell. (1969). ''Art in America from colonial days through the nineteenth century''. London: Crowell-Collier Press. * National Museum of American Art (U.S.), & Kloss, W. (1985). ''Treasures from the National Museum of American Art''. Washington: National Museum of American Art.

References

External links

*
John Singleton Copley in America
'' a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Robert Feke (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Feke, Robert 1700s births 1752 deaths 18th-century American painters 18th-century American male artists American male painters People from Oyster Bay (town), New York Artists from New York (state) People of the Province of New York American portrait painters Winthrop family