JOHN BREWSTER, JR. (1766-1854)

A rare double portrait by John Brewster, Jr. (1766-1854), this likeness of baby twins Josiah Coffin Dow (1809-1833) and Richard Weare Dow (1809-1840) can be reliably dated to circa 1810 given the age of the sitters. On May 4 of that year, John Brewster, Jr. advertised in the Salem Gazette, as did the sitters' father, Josiah Dow (1783-1850) for his business of selling imported fabrics (Salem Gazette, 4 May 2010, pp. 1, 3). No doubt Josiah perused this newspaper and may have commissioned this portrait as a result of seeing Brewster's advertisement. Both twins died at relatively young ages, Josiah at the age of 24 and Richard at the age of 31 in a widely reported tragedy of the burning of the steamer Lexington in Long Island Sound. The portrait descended to their younger brother, George Worthington Dow (1811-1884) and then directly in the family until its sale at auction in 1981.