Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-11-24

foothold in the infant American col
onies and until Benjamin West went
to London the mother country was
not willing to admit that the soil of
the New World settlements was con
ducive to the development of real
artistic talent. Long before that,
however, Perth Amboy boosted of
an artist of ability who had been so
attracted by the opportunities offer
ed in the Jerseys that he overcame
: the natural reluctance of the aver
age Scot to leave his native heath
and settled in this old capital Of the
province.
He was John Watson, for a long
time the only portrait painter on
this side the Atlantic. 1t was in
| 1715s that he came here and at that
time he was a man OF about thirty
years Of age. Most that we know
| OF him, and that is a enough,
Is preserved by William Dunlap, a
| native of Perth Amboy, by the way,
in his History of the Arts of Design
in America. The place of his birth
in Scotland is nowhere recorded, so
far as known, and the year Of his
birth is revealed by the inscription
on the huge brownstone slab lover
ing his grave in st. Peters church,
| yard.
More than half a century he lived
here, dying August %, 1853, at the
| & of eighty-three. His home was
at the corner of Water and Market
streets, where John Manning's home
later was built, after that the Rari-
tan Bay Seminary, conducted by the
Misses Manning (only distant rela-
tives Of the earlier owner) and now
the residence of Mrs. G. c.. Baldwin.
There were two houses on the prop
erty two centuries ago and-one of
them housed the first collection of
paintings ever gathered together in
America.
Watson made a trip to Europe
after he had been here some time
and brought back with him a large
number of paintings, a considerable
collection, in point of numbers, but,
as Dunlap puts it, "of their value we
>are ignorant" In Dunlap's boyhood
the building which housed this col
lection had decayed and disappeared
and even in that day-the period of
the American Revolution-there was
no knowledge of the whereabouts of
the pictures. The house In which
the artist lived must have been a re-
markable n in appearance, for the
shutters were adorned with "the
heads of heroes and of kings with
awe-inspiring crowns" evidences of
the taste and talent of the painter.
The only modern instance we have
had of this form of exterior decora-
ton was when L. Luis Mora cleverly
pictured a sombrero-covered, kerr
chiefed Mexican Cor al it a Span
iard) on the little clubhouse of his
youthful brothers-in-law some years
ago on Rector street.
When Watson came here he was
very poor and by practicing thrift
and industry he was able to add very
materially to a legacy left him by
relatives in Scotland. After that he
was free from financial worries, ex-
cept those brought about by his re-
luctance to spend enough money to
afford him maintenance and a COM
Portable home. The artist never
married and after he had been here
a while he persuaded his nephew,
Alexander, a brothers son who was
a midshipman In the British navy, to
come here and live with him. This
nephew cared for him until the old
nan died and then spent his last
days on a farm near Florida Grove,
which, even then, was known as
Florida.
Writing in 1855, Mr.. Whitehead
said that "as none of Watson's paint
ings of any size have come down to
us, we are left comparatively in ig-
norance of his proficiency in the
art" Mr.. Whitehead, however, had
a number of sketches in India ink,
made by him, which, as he said,
were tolerably well executed. Among
them were q series of drawings of
Watson himself, at different ages.
The present whereabouts of these
tiny tokens of the first painters
ability are as much a mystery as
what became of his collection of
paintings brought from Europe. Mr..
Whitehead presented a miniature of
Governor William Keith, painted by
Watson, to the historical society of
Pennsylvania. He used one of Rev.
| Edward Vaughan, minister to New
Jersey from the Society for the Pro-
| pagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts, in 1909, and another, of Gov
| William Burnet, to illustrate
| his Contributions to East Jersey
History and one of those sketches of
Watson, himself, appears in that in
teresting and important volume. OF
the others that Mr.. Whitehead had
almost nothing is now known.
Two life size portraits attributed
to Watson have appeared, as have a
very few from time to time, and will
be offered for sale next week in
| Metuchen by Charles +. Heartman.
While these are unsigned, there is