Oil on canvas,26 inches by 32.5 inches, in its original frame. Susannah Conner, née Susanna Howell, daughter of Silas and Hannah Howell, married Nicholas Longworth in 1803, the year Ohio was granted statehood  Nicholas Longworth established the wine industry in the United States of America.  The Longworth family is closely associated with Cincinnati, Ohio. Nicholas Longworth 1783-1863, a banker and winemaker is known as the’ father of American grape culture’. He planted a vineyard of the Catawba grape on the Mount Adams hillside on the Ohio river outside the city and began making sparkling wine using the champagne method. Both still and sparkling wine were exported widely from California to Europe. in the mid-1850s, Longworth sent a case to American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, then living in New York City, who wrote a poem dedicated to Nicholas Longworth, titled ‘ Ode to Catawba Wine’. His wines were very popular among the many German immigrants who were arriving in Ohio.            The peak of its production was reached in 1859, but in the 1860s the vines were decimated by mildew and many vineyards were either torn up or abandoned with the advent of the Civil War.   A vine appears through the open window, to Susannah’s right in  the portrait.   An American naive painting in oil.                 Nicholas Longworth in 1850 was one of the 40th wealthiest Americans of  that ERA, at one time being the wealthiest American.  Oil on canvas, restored and cleaned.( One image before cleaning in its original mid-19th century frame,)

 

Price:  £2,500