Notizen zu dieser Person
"Abraham B. Rockey, who...painted Stephen Taylor's portrait now in the Wisconsin Historical Society, [originally] had to go to Philadelphia to make a start." (Porter Butts, Art in Wisconsin, 1936, p. 76.)
"Abraham B. Rockey, who painted the fine likeness of Stephen Taylor, is a native of Mifflinburg, Union County, Pennsylvania, and was left an orphan when about nine months old. When about fourteen years of age, he was placed by his guardian with a spinning-wheel maker, with a view of learning the trade; and this man, in a few months, migrated to Stark County, Ohio, accompanied by young Rockey, who was encouraged to do so by the present of a small rifle. Here some years were employed in clearing land and farming in summer, making spinning-wheels in winter, and maple sugar in the spring. At odd spells, he tried his ingenuity in making drums, fifes, and toys, by means of which he supplied his pocket with change. He used his rifle considerably on squirrels, and now and then on a deer. On one occasion, when out on an errand, he wished for his rifle. Passing along what was called the State road, leading to Cleveland, he heard a pig squeal, and concluded a bear was killing it; and not thinking of any danger young Rockey left the road and ran into the woods, with a thick undergrowth, and soon mounted a small dog-wood. While looking around at a distance, he heard a grunt and growl nearly under the sapling on which he was mounted, and with no small surprise discovered a large bear with a white spot on its breast, standing on its hind feet and looking directly at him. Recollection that he has heard it remarked that a bear could not climb so small a sapling, he soon composed himself, only wishing that he had his gun; But the bear soon passed off into the brush, and young Rockey as rapidly out of it -- the separation apparently mutual.
"He returned to Pennsylvania in the spring of 1816, to go to school -- walking all the way to Pittsburgh, as no stages were running in that region. While attending school, he first conceived the idea of painting; he copied figures from tea trays, and began to cultivate and develop his artistic taste. As there were no works of art to study in that part of the country, he went to Philadelphia in December, 1817, and remained there till March following, picking up what information he could, when he went to the Susquehanna country, and remained six years. In December, 1824, he again went to Philadelphia, determined to become a portrait painter. He took a letter of introduction from Wm. Cox Ellis, cashier of a bank at Milton for which he had painted a sign exhibiting more than common skill, to his brother, Charles Ellis, who proved a kind friend and patron of the young artist.
"He received six weeks instruction from Thomas Birch, a well-known landscape and marine painter; and spent some time in antique drawing from the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. From every artist whose acquaintance he made, he derived new information. Mr. B. Otis was the first portrait painter to whose rooms he had access, and he found him generous and communicative. He also found the elder Sully very friendly, and always ready to impart instruction. The first palette he had regularly set for him, was handed him by Thomas Sully, Jr., arranged by his father. Rockey found Mr. Nagle, a young artist, enthusiastically devoted to his profession. They spent long winter evenings in drawing together, at the Nagle's house, from casts, by lamp-light; until at length Nagle became very active in getting up the Artists' Fund Society, in opposition to the Academy of Fine Arts, in which Rockey did not agree with him. Thus had Mr. Rockey porgressed, step by step, until he has taken high rank as a portrait painter, and almost entirely a self-taught artist." (State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Report on the Picture Gallery, 1859, p.113-114.)
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Rockey, A B - artist, 122 S 7th
Artist Listings From McElroy's Philadelphia City Directory for 1861
http://www.ajmorris.com/art/artists3.htm
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witness to Jacob Coats will, bef 1837
http://www.ancestrees.com/pedigree/8669.htm
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Name: Abraham B Rockey
Birth Date: abt 1795
Death Date: 13 Feb 1875
Death Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Age at Death: 80
Burial Date: 17 Feb 1875
Gender: Male
Race: White
Occupation: Portrait Painter
Street address: 700 Sansom St
Cemetery: Ronaldsons
Marital Status: Single
FHL Film Number: 2026652
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Name: Abraham B Rockey
Probate Date: 9 Apr 1875
Probate Place: Pennsylvania, USA
Inferred Death Year: Abt 1875
Inferred Death Place: Pennsylvania, USA
Item Description: Wills, No 123-159, 1875
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Name: Abraham B Rockey
Birth - Death: 1799-
Source Citation:
* The New-York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860. By George C. Groce and David H. Wallace. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957. (NewYHSD)
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Karl
Held
