“Daniel Webster” (standing – full length) oil on canvas with stretcher, 17.5″ x 26.5″ – may be signed on back (from notes found in art collection folders)
Bequeathed by Elizabeth Lennon Lawson in 1959 in loving memory of his son, Walter Uhler Lawson.
Thomas Bayley Lawson (1807-1888) was the founder and first president of the Lowell Arts Association, establishing the first art association in the United States in 1878. Born in Newburyport, he moved to Lowell in 1832. His studio was located at the corner of High and Andover Streets. In 1844, he was commissioned by a group of Lowell “Whigs” to go to Washington and paint Daniel Webster, who was Acting Secretary of State at the time. Webster tried his early cases in Lowell. This portrait became his most famous and he copied it many times. In 1845, Lawson opened a studio on Shattuck Street, now the location of the New England Quilt Museum. He painted the portraits of most of Lowell’s influential residents and many of Lowell’s early politicians.
Located on the Grand Staircase First Floor Hallway