biografia di John II WOLLASTON (act.1736-1775)

Birth place: England

Profession: Portrait painter

Studied: in London under a noted drapery painter, perhaps Joseph van Aken (who painted draperies for artists such as Thomas Hudson and Allan Ramsay)

Work: MMA; Mus.City of NY; NYHS; NGA, Wash., DC; Washington and Lee Univ., Lexington, VA; Worcester (MA) Art Mus.; Shelburne (VT) Mus.

Comments: Son of London portrait painter John Wollaston (1672-1749). The family name has been at times spelled as Woolaston. The younger Wollaston's earliest firmly dated work is of 1742. He came to America in 1749 and remained for almost ten years, during which time he produced at least three hundred portraits in NYC (1749-52), Annapolis (and elsewhere in Maryland, 1753-54), Virginia (c. 1755-58), and Phila. (1759). He brought to the colonies the latest in English portrait fashion and was highly sought after and praised in his day. His faces are distinguished by certain mannerisms ó the slight turn of the head, the almond-shaped eyes and the small, sweet smile; and he excelled at the painting of lace, satin, and pearls. Wollaston, like Blackburn, exerted a strong influence on his American contemporaries, including Benjamin West, Matthew Pratt, John Mare, and John Hesselius (see entries). He left the colonies in 1759 and eventually went to the West Indies, where he is recorded as living on the Island of St. Christopher in 1765 or 1765. Between September of 1765 and March of 1767 he was working in Charleston, SC, where he painted at least 17 portraits. It was noted in the South Carolina Gazette that he had left for England in May of 1767. Of his later career nothing is recorded although it is known that he was living in England in 1775.

Sources: G&W; Groce, John Wollaston (fl. 1736-67): A Cosmopolitan Painter in the British Colonies," is the most complete account; see also Bolton and Binsse, "Wollaston, An Early American Portrait Manufacturer"; Morgan, "Wollaston's Portraits of Brandt and Margaret Van Wyck Schuyler"; and Groce, "John Wollaston's Portrait of Thomas Appleford, Dated 1746." More recently, see Baigell, Dictionary; Craven, Colonial American Portraiture, 304-06 and 371-73; Saunders and Miles, 176-182; NYHS (1974); Muller, Paintings and Drawings at the Shelburne Museum, 140 (w/repro.)"