{{Short description|American painter}} {{Infobox artist | name = James Frothingham | image = James Frothingham.png | image_size = | caption = Frothingham depicted in a portrait by Sarah C. Frothingham, his daughter | birth_name = | birth_date = 1786 | birth_place = Charlestown, Massachusetts, U.S. | death_date = January 6, 1864 | death_place = | known_for = Painting | training = Gilbert Stuart | movement = | notable_works = | patrons = | awards = }}
'''James Frothingham''' (1786–1864) <ref name=WAfroth> "Chester Harding (1792–1866)" (biography), Worcester Art, webpage: [http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/harding/biography/index.html WorcArt-Harding]. </ref> <ref name=AMfroth> "Boston Painters and Paintings" (article), ''The Atlantic Monthly'', Volume 62, Issue 370, August 1888, p. 258, LOC webpage: [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncps:@field(DOCID+@lit(ABK2934-0062-30)):: LOC-AMonthly-Boston] (notes Samuel Dexter portrait flesh tone; has Dunlap & Gilbert Stuart quote: "No man in Boston but myself can paint so good a head."). </ref> was an American portrait painter in Massachusetts and New York. He was the father of the painter Sarah C. Frothingham.
==Life and work== Frothingham was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts.<ref name=WAfroth/> He began as a chaise painter in his father's chaise manufactory. In the Boston area, he was a student of Gilbert Stuart.<ref name=WAfroth/> In 1888, ''The Atlantic Monthly'' described him as "a portraitist of talent",<ref name=AMfroth/> adding that Stuart is quoted as having said of one of Frothingham's head portraits, "No man in Boston but myself can paint so good a head," and that Frothingham was greatly helped by Stuart's criticisms and encouragement, although initially his Nestor had advised him to adopt another, less precarious means of earning a livelihood.<ref name=AMfroth/>
''The Atlantic'' noted that there is a detailed portrait of Samuel Dexter by Frothingham in the Harvard Memorial Hall, in which Dexter, wearing a white wig and a red cloak atop a black coat, holds a book in his hand, and appears lost in meditation, saying the flesh coloring in the painting is rather dry and parchment-like, but overall, the color is harmonious. Dunlap noted that heads depicted by James Frothingham were painted with great truth, freedom, and excellence.<ref name=AMfroth/>
He painted a number of likenesses in Salem, Massachusetts, including the wealthy merchant Elias Hasket Derby. Frothingham would have been a regional competitor to the younger Chester Harding (1792–1866), but moved to Brooklyn in New York City in 1826.
In 1828, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an associate member, and became a full academician in 1831.
Frothingham was the subject of a portrait bust by Joanna Quiner.<ref name="Rubinstein1990">{{cite book|author=Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein|author-link=Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein|title=American women sculptors: a history of women working in three dimensions|url=https://archive.org/details/americanwomenscu0000rubi|url-access=registration|year=1990|publisher=G.K. Hall|isbn=978-0-8161-8732-4}}</ref> His own portrait of her is held by the Beverly Public Library in Beverly, Massachusetts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://npg.si.edu/object/npg_395.DUP1|title=Joanna Quiner|website=npg.si.edu|accessdate=19 May 2017}}</ref>
==Selection of portraits== <gallery> File:Frothingham EliasHasketDerby.jpg|''Elias Hasket Derby'', 1800-1825 File:William Badger by James Frothingham.jpg|''William Badger'', c. 1805 Image:Frothingham LuciaPickering.jpg|''Lucia Pickering'', 1820 Image:Frothingham Brooks.jpg|''Elizabeth Brooks'', 1823 Image:Frothingham JonathanBrooks.jpg|''Jonathan Brooks'', 1823 File:Mrs_Peter_Gilman_Robbins.jpeg|''Mrs. Peter Gilman Robbins'', c.1818 </gallery>
==See also== * Francis Alexander, an American painter who moved to Boston * John Burgum, an ornamental painter and one of Frothingham's co-workers * John Coles, a portrait and heraldic painter and Frothingham friend who also studied under Gilbert Stuart
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== * "Chester Harding (1792–1866)" (biography), Worcester Art, webpage: [http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/harding/biography/index.html WorcArt-Harding]. * "Boston Painters and Paintings" (old article), ''The Atlantic Monthly'', Volume 62, Issue 370, August 1888, LOC webpage: [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncps:@field(DOCID+@lit(ABK2934-0062-30)):: LOC-AMonthly-Boston]. * {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Frothingham, James|year=1900}} Has 1781 as birth year, and Charleston as birthplace.
==External links== *{{commons category-inline}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frothingham, James}} Category:1786 births Category:1864 deaths Category:18th-century American male artists Category:18th-century American painters Category:19th-century American male artists Category:19th-century American painters Category:American male painters Category:Painters from Massachusetts Category:Painters from New York City Category:People from Charlestown, Boston