Featured Haunted portraits

Following the post about the folk art painting of a lady, I commented that we have my husband's ancestor painted in 1835 (it's dated)

When we got the family 1850 homestead, he was hanging in the dark, upstairs hallway and the paint was coming off. We had him restored and he hangs in the dining room. Mason Richards was a merchant in Dedham, MA. He developed the Benoni apple and made a fortune. If I want a cutting, they are still grown in New Zealand.

He's a dignified, handsome fellow, but the portrait has a ghost. Many itinerant painters reused canvases. The reasons could be anything from the person changed their mind, they didn't like how it came out, etc. Depending on where you stand in the room, you either see the 40ish Mason or you see an older gentleman with spectacles. Up close you can see underlying brush strokes where buttons are in a different place on a different coat.

The older face is harder to see in a photo but very clear in person. I think it's fascinating.

 

I saw your comment in the other thread and thought "No fair not sharing the ancestor!" So thanks for giving us a look! The painter did a really respectable job and he looks inviting. I'm glad you saved him.

 

It is boo=tiful

 

Re-'Haunted Portraits', I wouldn't be surprised if a smidge of Him wasn't still watching over the old plantation !
May I ask-did you mention inheriting an 1850's family farm ? That'd be like a Hallmark movie !
We watch that type of fluff when things are dire.

 

Pentimento/i & palimpsest are fun words that come to mind.

 

It might be interesting to have him x-rayed, which could show the underpainting.

 

It's the Money-Pit-On-Main-Street. Built by Solomon Linnell in 1850 for his daughter Emma and her husband Henry Percival. Solomon's wife was sister to my husband's g-g-g-grandmother. Emma & Henry died childless and the house was taken over by one of Henry's cousins for awhile who used it as a rental. Jon's g-grandfather then got it and continued to rent it out as did his grandfather. Jon's parents ended up living here until we got it in 1990. His Dad raised sheep and what is not the locksmith shop used to be the sheep shearing shed (say that three times fast!). It needs constant work and we've already done so much to rehabilitate it. My grandson actually had the same room Jon had as a child. It still had cowboy wallpaper.

 

The idea of living in an old (or ancient as in Europe) family manse is intriguing-seen documentaries abt it.
Saw one YouTube where the descendants had been in the same castle since the 13th or 14th century.

 

This one is going on to my son and grandson. So - Emma to Arthur to David to Ellen to Jon. We're 5th generation. I found copies I made of the old deeds and it's always been called The Anchorage. There's a quarterboard with the name on the house and we found an older one in the crawl space under the kitchen.

 

By the way (since the 'H' word was mentioned in the title)- is the place quirky, or dare I say- haunted ?

 

Only by me.

 

That's good news Bev- How many relatives (or Ancestors) do you need droppin' in ?