Rufus Hathaway (1770–1822)

• Was an American physician and folk art painter.
• He lived in southern Massachusetts, where he painted numerous portraits between 1790 and 1795.
• He later studied medicine and established himself as a doctor at Duxbury.
• Hathway was born in Freetown, Massachusetts, and was the eldest of six children born to Asa Hathaway and Mary Phillips.
• Thirty-three portraits by Hathaway are known to exist, dating almost exclusively to the years between 1790 and 1795; all are of relatives and friends, among them the educator and politician George Partridge.
• He also painted landscapes, portrait miniatures, and overmantels.
• In 2006, a pair of portraits, of Josiah Dean III and his wife, Sarah, were sold at Sotheby's, together fetching $380,000.
• The displayed painting is a crop from: Lady with Her Pets (Molly Wales Fobes), 1790.
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