John Brewster Jr. (1766-1854)
John Brewster Jr. was a successful New England portrait artist as well as one of the first individuals to learn American Sign Language. Brewster was born deaf and enrolled at the newly opened Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb at the age of 51, where he was present during the development of American Sign Language. Art historians have theorized that Brewster’s lack of hearing may have contributed to the extraordinary sensitivity with which he depicted the facial expressions of his subjects.
Brewster was born in Hampton, Connecticut and studied art with the Reverend Joseph Seward, who worked in the style of fellow American portraitist Ralph Earl. Brewster joined his brother Royal in a move to Buxton, Maine in 1795 and worked as an itinerant portrait artist completing commissions throughout Maine and New England. Surviving newspaper advertisements indicate that he charged $15 for large portraits and $5 for miniatures. In 2006 Brewster was featured in an exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum titled A Deaf Artist in Early America: The Worlds of John Brewster, Jr.
-Information courtesy of Harlowe-Powell Auction.