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Portrait of a Dark-haired Man Reading the "Genesee Farmer"
ca. 183930 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Asahel Lynde Powers
United States (Springfield, VT, 1813 - 1843, Olney, IL)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Virginia Jeffrey Smith Fund
Accession Number:
2001.1
Location: Not currently on view
The artist of the painting signed the back of the canvas with a flourish “Asahel Powers.” Powers was a self-taught portrait painter who traveled throughout the countryside in search of portrait commissions. Unfortunately, history has lost the name of this dapper gentleman who, we infer by the books and writing cabinet visible behind him, was a learned man of means. His interests and likely profession are further indicated by "The Genesee Farmer" in his hands, a popular journal dedicated to agriculture and horticulture founded in Rochester in 1831.
This portrait broadly tells the story of early Euro-American settlers who were cultivating and living off of the land of the Genesee Valley. It does not capture the story of the Indigenous people who had lived in those lands for hundreds of years prior to the arrival of the European settlers. Coincidentally, this portrait was painted during the infamous Trail of Tears, a brutal upheaval in American history over land rights in which the military forcibly moved over 60,000 Indigenous people (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, Osage, and Seminole, including thousands of their Black slaves) to an undesirable stretch of prairie land, now in Oklahoma. During the forced march, many thousands of men, women, and children suffered and died from exposure, disease, and starvation.
[Gallery label text, 2021]
This portrait broadly tells the story of early Euro-American settlers who were cultivating and living off of the land of the Genesee Valley. It does not capture the story of the Indigenous people who had lived in those lands for hundreds of years prior to the arrival of the European settlers. Coincidentally, this portrait was painted during the infamous Trail of Tears, a brutal upheaval in American history over land rights in which the military forcibly moved over 60,000 Indigenous people (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, Osage, and Seminole, including thousands of their Black slaves) to an undesirable stretch of prairie land, now in Oklahoma. During the forced march, many thousands of men, women, and children suffered and died from exposure, disease, and starvation.
[Gallery label text, 2021]
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Additional Images
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- Likeness Captured: 19th-Century Portraits from the Historic Village Genesee Country Museum and Village 5/14/2002 - 8/18/2002
- Fields and Falls: Images of Rochester Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester 1/16/2004 - 3/14/2004
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
- Memorial Art Gallery. ARTiculate. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2000--.
- Article Author: Marten, Jessica. Article Title: Asahel Lynde Powers: Portrait of a Dark-haired Man Reading the “Genesee Farmer”. Article Scope: Chapter and reproduction. Marjorie B. Searl, ed. Seeing America: painting and sculpture from the collection of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2006. Page Number: 43-46
Portfolio List
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This object is a member of the following portfolios:
Web Links
See links to web pages and lesson plans
Seeing America Inservice
Materials from a teacher in-service presentation Spring 2008
Seeing America
Chapter on Asahel Lynde Powers' Portrait of a Dark-haired Man Reading the “Genesee Farmer,” written by Jessica Marten.
Engraving of first Reynolds Arcade
Engraving of first Reynolds Arcade, showing sign for the Genesee Farmer Office. From the Rochester Images Project, direct url = http://photo.libraryweb.org/carlweb/jsp/DoSearch?databaseID=716&count=10&terms=3139&index=z
James Vick, seedsman.
Portrait of James Vick, Publisher of the Genesee Farmer, from the Rochester Images Project, direct url = http://photo.libraryweb.org/carlweb/jsp/DoSearch?databaseID=716&count=10&terms=11076&index=z