Captain Moody Russell Freeman
by George Freeman, signed & dated 1810.
Moody Russell Freeman (b. 1787) served in the War of 1812 as a captain in the Smith & Dobbins Regiment of the New York Militia. The son of Revolutionary War soldier and Green Mountain Boy, Major Moody Freeman, his son, yet another Moody Freeman, fought in the Civil War. Freeman was born in Tolland, Connecticut, two years before his parents moved to Monroe, New York, where he married Phoebe Volkenberg and spent the rest of his life. It is likely that he was related to George Freeman, who was also from Tolland.
This rare example of Freeman's early work in America shows the influence of Anson Dickinson, who was also working in Albany in 1810.
Set in the original black ebonized frame with gilt-metal mount. The reverse with signature, Gg Freeman, Painter/ Albany, Feby 12th, 1810.
George Freeman (1789-1868), a self-taught artist from Tolland County, Connecticut, counted Queen Victoria among his sitters. Starting his career at nineteen as an itinerant artist, Freeman traveled New York State in search of commissions. By 1816, he was in Montreal before finding immense success in London. Returning to the United States in 1841, Freeman exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the Boston Athenaeum, the American Academy and the Artists' Fund Society.
