$7,110
William Matthew Prior (American, 1806-1873) Portrait of Ardelle Clementine Taylor. Unsigned, subject identified in a note affixed to the reverse. Oil on paperboard, c. 1850, depicted wearing a red dress, gold beaded necklace, holding a sprig of flowers before red tasseled drapery, 14 1/2 x 10 1/2 in., in a later giltwood frame. Condition: Very minor retouch on cheek, scattered paint losses. Note: Ardelle Clementine Taylor, a descendant of three Mayflower pilgrims, was born April 11, 1846, the second child of four born to Benjamin Franklin Taylor, a noted musician, music teacher, and artist, and his first wife Matilda Ellis, who resided in Stafford Springs, Connecticut. On December 28, 1874, in Oil City, Pennsylvania, Clementine married Clark Louis Sidman (b. 1851), a pianist and music teacher, of Homer, New York, whom she reportedly met at a summer school for Sunday school teachers in Chautauqua, New York. They had one child, Edward Arthur Sidman. Ardelle died February 15, 1934, in Oil City, and is buried in the family plot in Stafford Springs, Connecticut. A copy of a photo of Ardelle and Clark Sidman and genealogical information is included with the portrait. Note: This is the older sister of Frances Eudora Taylor, the subject of the Prior portrait shown as lot 255 in this auction.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2009-02-15
