Walt Borisenok P’06 ’08

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Top: Asa W. Twitchell, “Self Portrait,” 1884. Archives and Collections of The Albany Academies Bottom: Twitchell Residence in 1894, courtesy of Albany Institute of History and Art Albany Artist, ACADEMY Friend By John McClintock’57 A ll my youthful years, on the way into town from Slingerlands in my parent’s car or by bicycle, I passed a large white wood frame house on New Scotland Road’s south side, about a half-mile up the hill from Normans Kill. I never wondered how old it was, who lived there, or what was its story. In truth, it has a great story. It was the home and last studio of Asa W. Twitchell, painter of portraits and landscapes, member of the prestigious “Albany Group” denoted as sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer, Twitchell, George H. Boughton, and <strong>Walt</strong>er Launt Palmer. I recently realized that Twitchell has a close connection to the Academies. My predecessors in the writing of Academy history and the care of Academy archives knew this, but I had the pleasure of peeling away ignorance with the process of investigation and discovery. I knew the Academies hold some of his portraits. The enlightening moment arrived when I put Twitchell’s portrait of Justice Stephen J. Field into the hands of conservators at Williamstown Art Conservation Center and learning that they had others and knew of a portrait he did early-on in the life of one Herman Melville. It was high time to pull the whole story together. Asa W. Twitchell, Jr., was born in New Hampshire, January 1, 1820. When he was ten, his parents settled in Lansingburgh, New York. Asa Senior set up shop as a wheelwright. Young Asa learned the trade, painted carriages, and attended nearby Lansingburgh Academy. Maria Gansevoort married Allan Melville on October 14, 1814, in the North Dutch Church (First Church, Dutch Reformed) in Albany. Herman Melville was born August 1, 1819 in New York City. At age seven, Herman was sent upriver for the summer to his uncle, Judge Peter Gansevoort. The Melville family returned to Albany in 1830. Herman enrolled in Albany Academy on October 15, 1830, for English grammar, arithmetic and geography. His brothers Allan and Gansevoort also attended. His four sisters attended Albany Female Academy. When his father’s business went bad, Herman was withdrawn. At Allan Sr.’s death in 1832, Gansevoort Melville left school to run the business in fur hats, capes and coats. Herman returned to the Academy for one year of Latin study in September, 1836. Then, the Panic of 1837 killed the Melville enterprise entirely. The family moved to River street in Lansingburgh in 1838. Herman Melville took engineering and surveying at Lansingburgh Academy. Unable to find related work with the Erie Canal, he went to sea on the Acushnet, a whaling vessel out of New Bedford. At the Polynesian harbor of Taio Hae, the ship received natives bearing gifts, in fact, baring 12 The Albany Academies Magazine
Profile of Asa Weston Twitchel all. Herman jumped ship. The rest is history, or rather literature. See his first novel, Typee, A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846). Asa Twitchell was a self-taught artist. He painted his first portrait in 1839 and some of his first themes were religious. He gravitated toward portraits, emphasizing personality, character, and revealing in the subject’s face and gaze a characteristic of his or her inner energy. Twitchell married Nancy Simons of Lansingburgh in 1841. In 1843, they moved across the river to Albany. Twitchell set up his first studio on Canal street in 1845. Between 1838 and 1841, Twitchell and Melville were in the village of Lansingburgh together and some accounts say they met at Lansingburgh Academy and were friends. Melville had no cause to have a portrait painted before the success of Typee. In 1846-47, however, that was a fact, and so was an engagement to Elizabeth Shaw of Boston and a trip for patronage to Washington where Melville met two New York men (courtesy of his uncle’s introductions): William L. Marcy (former governor and then Secretary of State) and John T. Dix (then senator, later governor). Upon his return to Lansingburgh, Melville sat for Twitchell with the following result. Twitchell’s most famous studio was at 57 North Pearl street, above Annesley Art Store. He was established there in 1874. Annesley’s was a meeting place for artists. It was also close to Albany Female Academy at nr 40-42. The Academy’s 150th Anniversary publication indicates Twitchell was a teacher there. I have not found him listed in school directories, but the Archives does have a list of his paintings once stored at the school on North Pearl. Asa Twitchell painted many famous men including nine governors of New York and seven state Supreme Court justices. Albany Institute of History and Art owns over thirty Twitchell portraits and landscapes. Asa Twitchell and Erastus Dow Palmer were close friends as well as associates in the Albany Group. In later years, the two met often at Annesley’s as recorded in this charming photograph held by the Institute. The two friends died six weeks apart, Palmer in March, Twitchell in April, 1904. This closed an aesthetic period important to Albany and its Academies. His brush sensitive to the inner life of his subjects, Asa Twitchell, “a man of singularly beautiful character” still shares with us his prodigious work and appreciation of the character of the men and women of our city. Herman Melville by Asa Twitchell c. 1847, courtesy of Berkshire Athenaeum Erastus Dow Palmer (Sculptor) and Asa W. Twitchell (Painter) in Annesley Art Gallery Photographic reproduction Albany Institute of History & Art Library, PC19_00140_MPC_285 The above piece is an excerpt from a paper by John McClintock with notes and bibliography. The full article is available upon request. Due to restrictions by the owners, the images in this article may not be reproduced. Fall/Winter 2011 13
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Walt Borisenok P’06 ’08

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