At the Writing Table

At the Writing Table, painted in 1790 by an American 18th-century artist, depicts a figure seated at a writing desk with a candle and scattered papers. The work was originally documented as originating from Maine and was owned by John K. Byard of Norwalk, Connecticut, who acquired it in 1949 from an unnamed dealer who reportedly obtained it from Andrew Hawes, linked to the Quinby family of Stroudwater near Portland. Byard noted that the painting had functioned as a fireboard in the Quinby household before being sold.

The National Gallery of Art acquired the piece from Byard in 1953, where it remains in the collection today.

Scholarship on the work remains limited, but its provenance and domestic context have been discussed in curatorial records and regional historical studies. The painting’s style and subject reflect broader trends in early American interior genre painting, situating it within the artistic milieu of post-Revolutionary New England. Its material composition, aqueous medium on canvas, aligns with documented practices of the period, though further technical analysis has not been published.

The work is part of the National Gallery of Art’s permanent collection in Washington, D.C., where it is studied as an example of domestic realism in early American art.

The canvas depicts an interior scene in which a figure, dressed in a blue jacket, is seated at a writing desk. A quill and a sheet of paper lie before the sitter, while a hat rests on the tabletop. Two children stand on the floor beneath the desk; one holds a bird attached to a string. A window opens onto the wall, and a decorative border frames the composition.

The work presents a quiet domestic moment, emphasizing the act of writing as a contemplative pursuit. The presence of the children, especially the one with the tethered bird, introduces themes of innocence and the passage of time, contrasting the adult’s focused labor with youthful playfulness within the same space.