Note
1): The following biographical materials are taken from the Askart.com website:
“An
early and very successful American portrait painter, he was born in Windham,
Connecticut into an established Yankee family who recognized and encouraged
their son's obvious talent. He was sent at the age of sixteen to study art in
Hartford with Joseph Steward, a retired minister who did painting. Waldo did
some sign painting and then opened a portrait studio in Hartford. He met John
Rutledge of South Carolina who invited him to go there to paint commission
portraits, and he was so successful that the profits financed three years of
study in England with Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley. Under West, he
got much exposure to other American artists and to those especially skilled who
were members of the Royal Academy.
In
1809, he settled in New York and continuing to be inspired by West, worked hard
to encourage and nurture the American Academy of Fine Arts. He also exhibited
with the South Carolina Academy of Fine Arts and the National Academy of
Design. Many of his portrait subjects were prominent New Yorkers from the
emerging wealthy merchant class.
From
1820 to 1854, he worked with an apprentice, William Jewett, in a highly
successful portrait painting partnership until Jewitt's retirement. It is
thought that Waldo did the overall design and executed the head and hands. He
also did individual portraits, considered superior to the joint portraits
(Emphasis added).”
Note
2) This portrait of Captain Joshua Hayward is in excellent condition and
depicts a very handsome, indeed, dashing, man in early middle age, beautifully
rendered by Waldo with bravura and style. This painting is almost certainly the
individual work of Waldo, not a collaboration with his partner, William Jewett,
from 1820-1854. The foregoing information and the following considerations
warrant a conclusion that the presale estimate of $4,000-$6,000 is reasonable
and justifiable. This Waldo portrait is exceptional in terms of Waldo's bravado
and very sure brushwork in Ship’s Captain Joshua Heyward's hair and cravat,
superior glazing on the cheeks of Ship’s Captain Joshua Heyward, and overall
artistic execution, verging on that of Gilbert Stuart, when he was at his best.
Captain Heyward was, in fact, a ship's captain, which always brings a premium
for male portraits, particularly when the subject is very handsome, dashing,
self-confident and appears to have a flair for the dramatic. Waldo has very
rarely come to auction in the last 23 years from 1989 to the present. Per
Askart.com, only 17 Waldo portraits have been offered during this time period.
There are no direct comparables. The most directly comparable in size, 30"
x 25", and in manifesting the above-described Waldo painting
characteristics present in Captain Heyward's portrait is the portrait of
Lucinda Mack, which brought $7,150, per Askart.com:
Title/Subject: Lucinda Mack
Signature information not available. Oil on canvas. 30 in. x
25 in. sold for $7,150 on
9/27/2008 at Cottone Auctions and Appraisals, Geneseo, NY
The
same Waldo artistic characteristics, with the exception of the handling of the
subject's hair (as it is virtually invisible under a hat, but painting in the
same style the same kind of long hooked nose as Captain Heyward, appear in the
following portrait of Marie Underhill Van Zandt, which is also 30 in. x 25 in.,
as is Captain Heyward's portrait, and brought $4,412 on 05/25/1989, over 23
years ago.
Title/Subject: Marie Underhill Van Zandt Signature information not available. Oil on canvas. 30 in. x
25 in. sold for $4,412 on 5/25/1989 at Christie’s, NY
Only 3 male portraits by Waldo have been offered in the last 23 years. None of them is 30 in. x 25 in.; none is a portrait of a ship's captain; and none has same characteristics and aura as Captain Heyward, who is very handsome, dashing, and appears to be very confident and sure of himself and to have a flair for the dramatic. One of the three has almost a sneer on his face and the second portrait was so dirty, it was almost impossible to see that he was boring subject and, at best, only reasonably handsome. The third portrait, of Joseph M. White, which brought $3,120, was the best looking portrait of a relatively handsome man, but he is not a ship's captain and lacks most of the above bravura characteristics of Captain Heyward, but appears to be reasonably self-confident. Thus, relying on all of the above information, the presale estimate of $5,000-$7,000 is reasonable and justifiable.