John Neagle notebooks and account books

Scope and Contents

Five volumes of notebooks and account books documenting personal activities, financial matters, information on art and artists.

Scope and Contents

REEL P23 (fr. 453-512): Commonplace book, May 1839, handwritten by Neagle, with note by Charles Henry Hart that the book was commenced on the above date, but much of the matter was copied from a book of memorandums kept by Neagle years before.

Scope and Contents

REELS 3656-3657: Four volumes of notebooks and account books documenting personal activities, financial matters, information on art and artists. The memorandum of articles loaned lists prints and books, when and to whom they were loaned and sometimes, when they were returned. Items loaned include Burke on the Sublime, Price on Picturesque, as well as others. The blotter discusses commissions, sitters, prices and dates, in the form of individual entries for most days. The cash book lists cash received, cash paid and the amount of money owed by each client. Student notebook includes a recipe for "Mastick Varnish" and quotations of Mengs, Reynolds and Lawrence as well as color samples from Sir Thomas Lawrence's palette as copied by Thomas Sully.

Biographical / Historical

Portrait painter; Philadelphia, Penn. aAt 14 years, Neagle apprenticed with Thomas Wilson, a coach and ornamental painter. Through Wilson, Neagle met and studied under Bass Otis. Influences on Neagle's work include Thomas Sully and Gilbert Stuart. Neagle's painting "Pat Lyon at the Forge" was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1827 and brought him recognition and a reputation as a fine painter. In addition to painting, he devoted his attentions to the Pennsylvania Academy, the Artists' Fund Society, and art theory.