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Lot Essay
She then took our men on board and proceeded with the brig to Barbados, January 26th committing us to Prison where I now remain, March 6. The privateer Yankee of Newburryport is here ship John's crew of Salem is here about five hundred prisoners on board of the prisonship our crew, no exchange here yet some prisoners have been here six months. Give my love to all Enquiring friends. I remain Richard D.
Jewett
Richard Drummer Jewett, Jr., captured by the British during the War of 1812, wrote this letter to his parents in Ipswich, Massachusetts on March 6, 1813 while held prisoner in Bridgetown, Barbados. Jewett was born in 1792 in Ipswich, Massachusetts, the son of Richard Drummer Jewett, Sr., a Revolutionary War veteran. He was freed and returned home by November 25, when he wrote from Boston regarding other sailing jobs. He was aboard the Milo, which sailed from Boston for New Orleans where he made port. The ship was to go on to France, but was lost at sea; Jewett was never heard from again and is presumed to have drowned.
The only other known work by Richard Drummer Jewett is a signed depiction of The Constitution and Java, which was executed during his imprisonment. It is in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center at Colonial Williamsburg and is illustrated in Beatrix T. Rumford (ed.), American Folk Art Paintings From the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (New York, 1988) p. 206, no. 155. The catalogue referenced above states that The Constitution and Java was the only know watercolor by this artist. The watercolors offered here are executed on found paper, which were deeds from the Gibbes family, who were Barbadian plantation owners.
The works offered here, while unsigned, are stylistically related to his Constitution and Java. His visual accounting of the battle between the Constitution and the Java, which he could not have witnessed, was probably based upon details he heard while held in prison in Barbados. The Constitution fared so well and seemed impervious to the British cannon balls that after a long battle, the Java surrendered and the Constitution was given the nickname "Old Ironsides". His depiction of Death or Liberty, complete with cannonballs, may relate to the same battle, as he renders the American Eagle, shown grasping a flag and a torch in his talons, proudly victorious above the cannonballs. His patriotic recounting of the battle with a proud American victory is further emphasized here with the Death or Liberty and a British Ship, which likely depicts the Java. These two works complete the triptych of an influential battle and are a resolute expression of liberty by Jewett, prisoner of war.
Jewett
Richard Drummer Jewett, Jr., captured by the British during the War of 1812, wrote this letter to his parents in Ipswich, Massachusetts on March 6, 1813 while held prisoner in Bridgetown, Barbados. Jewett was born in 1792 in Ipswich, Massachusetts, the son of Richard Drummer Jewett, Sr., a Revolutionary War veteran. He was freed and returned home by November 25, when he wrote from Boston regarding other sailing jobs. He was aboard the Milo, which sailed from Boston for New Orleans where he made port. The ship was to go on to France, but was lost at sea; Jewett was never heard from again and is presumed to have drowned.
The only other known work by Richard Drummer Jewett is a signed depiction of The Constitution and Java, which was executed during his imprisonment. It is in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center at Colonial Williamsburg and is illustrated in Beatrix T. Rumford (ed.), American Folk Art Paintings From the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (New York, 1988) p. 206, no. 155. The catalogue referenced above states that The Constitution and Java was the only know watercolor by this artist. The watercolors offered here are executed on found paper, which were deeds from the Gibbes family, who were Barbadian plantation owners.
The works offered here, while unsigned, are stylistically related to his Constitution and Java. His visual accounting of the battle between the Constitution and the Java, which he could not have witnessed, was probably based upon details he heard while held in prison in Barbados. The Constitution fared so well and seemed impervious to the British cannon balls that after a long battle, the Java surrendered and the Constitution was given the nickname "Old Ironsides". His depiction of Death or Liberty, complete with cannonballs, may relate to the same battle, as he renders the American Eagle, shown grasping a flag and a torch in his talons, proudly victorious above the cannonballs. His patriotic recounting of the battle with a proud American victory is further emphasized here with the Death or Liberty and a British Ship, which likely depicts the Java. These two works complete the triptych of an influential battle and are a resolute expression of liberty by Jewett, prisoner of war.