Alfred Thomas Agate

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Alfred Thomas Agate
Self-portrait
Born(1812-02-14)February 14, 1812
DiedJanuary 5, 1846(1846-01-05) (aged 33)
Washington, D.C.
NationalityAmerican
Known forPainting, Miniature
Kalapuya man, sketched in Oregon during the United States Exploring Expedition
.

Alfred Thomas Agate (February 14, 1812 – January 5, 1846) was a noted American painter and miniaturist.

Agate lived in New York from 1831 to 1838. He studied with his brother, Frederick Styles Agate, a portrait and historical painter. He later went on to study with Thomas Seir Cummings.[citation needed] By the late 1830s, Agate was exhibiting his work at the National Academy of Design in New York, and established himself as a skilled painter in oils. He was elected into the National Academy of Design as an honorary member in 1840.

Agate drew landscapes, portraits, and scientific illustrations. For much of his landscapes,[citation needed] Agate used a camera lucida, a device which projected the scene onto a piece of paper for purposes of tracing.

Expedition

Agate created many artworks during his service with the

botanical illustrations, and was the designated portrait and botanical artist of the expedition.[1]

The United States Exploring Expedition passed through the Ellice Islands and visited Funafuti, Nukufetau and Vaitupu in 1841.[2] During the visit of the expedition to the Ellice Islands (now known as Tuvalu) Alfred Thomas Agate recorded the dress and tattoo patterns of men of Nukufetau.[3]

Agate created the first known picture of

Chinook Lodge, an Indian Burial Place, an Indian Mode of Rocking Cradle, and a picture of the wreck of one of the expedition's sailing ships at the mouth of the Columbia River
.

After the expedition

Agate lived in Washington, D.C., from 1842 onward, but his health suffered severely from the expedition and he died four years later of consumption.

On Agate's death in 1846, the drawings passed to his widow, Elizabeth Hill Kennedy Agate, who later married Dr. William J. C. Du Hamel of Washington, D.C. In 1926, one of her daughters from this marriage, Elizabeth A. Du Hamel, sold them to the Naval Historical Foundation. The Naval Historical Foundation donated Agate's artwork to the Navy Art Collection in 1998.

Namesakes

In 1841,

violet, Agatea violaris, after him.[4]

Gallery

  • "Andes near Alparmarca, Peru: Sketched from an Elevation of 16,000 Feet", illustration from the South American portion of the United States Exploring Expedition, digitally restored
    "Andes near Alparmarca, Peru: Sketched from an Elevation of 16,000 Feet", illustration from the South American portion of the United States Exploring Expedition, digitally restored
  • A man from the Nukufetau atoll, Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu) 1841
    A man from the Nukufetau atoll, Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu) 1841
  • Portrait of a native of the Gilbert Islands (then called the Kingsmill Islands), 1841
    Portrait of a native of the Gilbert Islands (then called the Kingsmill Islands), 1841
  • Illustration of a Ficus in Samoa
    Illustration of a Ficus in Samoa

References

  1. ^ "The Alfred Agate Collection: The United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842". www.history.navy.mil. Archived from the original on 30 April 2007. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  2. ^ Tyler, David B. – 1968 The Wilkes Expedition. The First United States Exploring Expedition (1838–42). Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society
  3. ^ The extensive report of the expedition has been digitized by the Smithsonian Institution. The visit to the Ellice Islands (now known as Tuvalu) is described in Chapter 2 in volume 5, pp. 35–75, 'Ellice's and Kingsmill's Group', http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/usexex/
  4. ^ Gray 1852.

Bibliography

  • Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
    . 2: 323–324.
  • "United States Exploring Expedition 1838-1842". Records of the United States Exploring Expedition. Harvard University Herbaria - Botany Libraries Archives Gray Herbarium. June 2009. Archived from the original on 15 June 2021. Retrieved 7 May 2020. (Contains botanical illustrations)
  • Who Was Who in America: Historical Volume 1607–1896. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1963.

External links