File talk:5500 Mkt Sq Germantown C.1820 Brinton.jpg

Who's the Artist - Brinton or Breton?

I suspect that the Philadelphia Museum of Art may be wrong about the name of the artist. This painting is based on a lithograph by William L. Breton that was published in John Fanning Watson's Annals of Philadelphia in 1830. There are dozens of watercolors by Breton at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Library Company of Philadelphia, and Athenaeum of Philadelphia, but this painting is an oil-on-canvas and much less finished than those works. I suspect that this is a copy of Breton's lithograph painted by another, less-accomplished artist. Unless that artist was named "William Brinton" -- a Brinton family had ties to Philadelphia's artistic community going back at least to the mid-19th century -- I suspect the Art Museum got the name wrong.
I changed the artist's name, but will certainly change it back if I am wrong. BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 21:23, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

Here's the lithograph in the 1830 Watson's Annals (courtesy of Google Books). The link will take you to page 24, the image is on the next page (which is unnumbered): http://books.google.com/books?id=OycA3b_tTE0C&dq=watson+annals+of+philadelphia&jtp=24 BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 21:50, 3 March 2013 (UTC)