Courtesy of H.A. Eastman
(NOTE: Portraits are listed by date of completion if known; if date unknown, portrait is listed at the end of this section. Use links to move between related sites within and beyond this website.)
Nelson Cook Self-Portrait (ca 1832) (Location unknown)
(Family records say that Cook's age when he completed this self-portrait, 24, is written on the back of the photo of the painting, taken when the portrait hung on the wall of a descendant [note what is apparently a portrait lamp (or possibly a desk lamp) intruding on the portrait image]. If, as this suggests, the work was finished before Cook went to Canada (1832?), it is his oldest known portrait. Cook apparently did display a self-portrait in Kingston, and he entered a self-portrait in Toronto's Society of Artists and Amateurs exhibition in the Canadian Parliament buildings in July, 1834 [Were they the same painting? Could this self-portrait be the one?]. The Toronto entry, along with another entry of his [John P. Kemble as Hamlet], was said by one writer in the Toronto Courier, to be "equal to the best in the exhibition… rich and splendid paintings," by another to be "spirited and expressive" if poorly drawn; not everyone was as charitable. See also Self-Portrait? 1856 and As a Portraitist.)
Lemuel Dickinson (1832) (Upper Canada Village Collection)
(From Denmark, NY; father/grandfather of other Dickinson sitters [see below]. It is not known whether Cook had in fact entered Canada by 1832. While by this time most of the Dickinson family had moved to Ontario, Lemuel apparently remained in Denmark, this according to Barbara Snyder, "Nelson Cook in Canada," Canadian Collector, Sep-Oct 1976. Moreover, grandson Walter Dickinson went to school near Denmark, so it is possible this and other "Canadian" portraits were done in New York. See Barnabas Dickinson and Parrit Blaisdell. Written on the back of this portrait is "Painted by N. Cook, 1832".)
Barnabas/us Dickinson (1832) (Upper Canada Village Collection)
(b. ca 1783 - d. 3 June 1832, Cornwall, Ont.; son of Lemuel; wife Lydia Davenport; ancestors said to have come on Mayflower; father of Moss Kent, Emily, Walter and John; moved from Denmark, NY, to Cornwall as early as 1812, as late as 1828; founder of Dickinson's Landing, a village on the St. Lawrence eventually flooded out by the Seaway; ran stagecoach/mail line from Kingston to Montreal; within days of a visit to opening of Rideau Canal with Moss Kent, Barnabas died of cholera, then an epidemic in the area perhaps worsened by the large impoverished immigrant population which dug the Canal. This portrait is labeled on the front lower left corner "Barnabas Dickenson [sic]/Aged 49 Years/A.D. 1832," and verso "Painted by N. Cook". The same chair may have been used for several of the Dickinson subjects as well as for Parrit Blaisdell, who lived in New York across the river -- Had Cook yet entered Canada? See Lemuel Dickinson.)
Moss Kent Dickinson (1832) (Upper Canada Village Collection)
(b. 1 June 1822, Denmark, NY - d. 19 July 1897; son of Barnabas/us and Lydia Dickinson; m. Elizabeth Trigge, ca 1846, 3 sons, 3 daughters; ran numerous steamers and barges between Ottawa and Kingston on the Rideau Canal [which employed Nicol Hugh Baird]; extended his freight forwarding to Quebec and Lake Champlain [see JH Hooker]; mill owner in Manotick, S of Ottawa, home in his later years; mayor of Ottawa, 1864-66; elected to Dominion Parliament, 1882; buried Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa. Dickinson Days, with parades and dancing, are still celebrated every June in Manotick, where Moss Kent's stone mill is a tourist destination. This portrait of Moss Kent as a boy of 10 unsigned but attributed to Cook.)
Emily Dickinson (1832) (Royal Ontario Museum)
(Daughter of Barnabas Dickinson. Inscribed on stretcher: Painted by N Cook 1832)
Walter Dickinson? (1832?) (Royal Ontario Museum)
(Eldest son of Barnabas Dickinson; in 1832 student in academy near Denmark, Lewis County, NY, some 100 miles from Cornwall, Ont., although as with the rest of the family, it is not known whether Cook painted the portrait in New York or Upper Canada. [See John Dickinson.] Inscribed on stretcher: Painted by N. Cook)
John Dickinson? (1832?) (Upper Canada Village Collection)
(Son of Barnabas Dickinson. The curator at UCV writes: "There is a hand-written note that identifies the portrait as Walter and then it is stroked out and reidentified as John. If the Royal Ontario Museum is convinced [?] that they have the Walter portrait, then… that helps identify ours somewhat as John, but not conclusively." Further, the painting has been seriously altered and overpainted, especially in the background, clothing and hair; the face and hands, however, seem to be original and untouched. The portrait is unsigned but attributed to Cook.)
Parrit (Peter?) Blaisdell, Jr. (1832) (Private Collection)
(b. 4 May 1796, Orange, Grafton County, NH - d. 3 (4?) Aug 1834; son of merchant, stage driver, and Revolutionary War veteran Parrit Blaisdell; Parrit, Jr. (who might have sometimes been called "Peter" as family lore has him) was also a stage driver between Windsor and Montpelier, VT; m. Betsy Standish, 1 Jan 1822, Montpelier; family moved in 1825 to Ft. Covington, NY; there the Standish Genealogy says he was a clock and watchmaker, while family lore suggests he may also have been a silversmith; he and his 10-year-old son Edwin died of cholera. [See Barnabas Dickinson; Ft. Covington, NY, is across the St. Lawrence River from Barnabas's town of Cornwall, Ontario; this geography, plus the chair in which some subjects are sitting, suggest that the Dickinsons and Blaisdells were painted at the same time, either in Canada or on the New York side.])
Mrs. Parrit (Betsy Standish) Blaisdell (1832) (Private Collection)
(b. 24 Aug 1799, Middleborough, Plymouth, MA - d. 30 May 1888, Hartford, CT; direct 7th generation descendant of Myles Standish, born to farmer Moses and Sally Redding Standish, one of perhaps 10 children; family moved to West Randolph, Orange County, VT; she and husband Parrit Blaisdell, Jr. had three children, Edwin Miles (1824), Chester Wright, and Harriet Elizabeth; after Parrit's death, by 1844, married Lyman Sperry of Malone, Franklin County, NY; after Lyman's death "Grandma Sperry" lived ca 30 years with daughter Harriet Fiske in Malone, later in Hartford.)
Mr. Robert McVicar (1832) (McCord Museum of Canadian History)
(b. ca 1794? 1799?, probably Scotland (Ireland?) - d. April 1864, Thunder Bay, Canada West (today Ontario). Employed by Hudson's Bay Company 1812-1830; posted primarily to Saskatchewan, Lake Athabasca and Great Slave Lake areas, earning a reputation as a fighter in the ongoing rivalry with North West Company; held prisoner for a time by NWC, fought a duel with an NWC clerk, and apparently involved in unfortunate incident when forced to surrender an Indian soon "butchered in a most cruel manner" by explorer/trader Peter Ogden, another "Nor'Wester." With the merger of the two fur-trading companies (1821), McVicar became one of 28 "chief traders"; retired in 1830; farmed outside Montreal; as captain of St. Andrews Rifle Company helped quell the 1837 Rebellion [see Sir Francis Bond Head]; in 1860 became Postmaster, Ft. William/Thunder Bay; active writer and promoter of western settlement. Although Robert died without achieving his long-sought status as a wealthy landowner, his name lives on in the McVicar Arm of Great Bear Lake and McVicar Creek in what is now Port Arthur; buried Riverside Cemetery, Thunder Bay. Portrait apparently painted in Quebec City [see below].)
Mrs. Robert McVicar (nee Christina McBeth/McBeath?) (1832) (McCord Museum of Canadian History)
(b. ca 18 Aug 1810-14? - d. 14 Jun 1878; went by nickname of Christy; the daughter of pioneers, married Robert McVicar at Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca on May 28, 1827; the ceremony was conducted by the famous and tragic Arctic explorer John Franklin (1786-1847); she and Robert had two sons [George and the other name unknown] and two daughters [Victoria (late 1830s-1899) and Christina (late 1830s-1895)]. Both daughters became wealthy through aggressive land deals and achieved the financial success that had evaded their father, Robert. Additionally, Victoria, a spinster, became well-known as a dramatic and “spirited frontier woman,” and reportedly negotiated with Metis rebel Louis Riel for the release of prisoners. Or was this simply another example of self-promotional embellishment on Victoria’s part? Christy died at Fort William, Ontario on Lake Superior. Her portrait, like Robert’s, was apparently painted in Quebec City.)
Nicol Hugh Baird (1833) (National Archives of Canada)
(b. 26 Aug 1796, Glasgow, Scotland - d. 18 Oct 1849, Brattleboro, VT; son of Hugh Nicol Baird and Margaret Burthwaite; engineer, surveyor, and prominent developer of Canadian water transport; worked with father on Forth & Clyde and Union Canals, Scotland, and, as a teen, on the restoration of St. Petersburg, Russia; to Montreal (1828) with references from Duke of Montrose and from renowned British engineer Thomas Telford; assigned to Clerk of Works, Rideau Canal, under Lt. Col. John By, replacing the controversial, malarial, and apparently oft-drunk surveyor and author John MacTaggart; worked also on Chambly and Welland Canals, Presqu'ile Point lighthouse, Trent Severn Waterway; latter efforts "cut short by political interference"; admitted to Britain's Institution of Civil Engineers, 1831. s., d. verso. Along with the portrait of his wife and daughter (Mary Telfer Baird and Mary), this portrait was displayed on the Rideau Canal, at the base of the Bank Street bridge at eye level for passing Winterlude skaters in February 2008.)
Mrs. Mary Telfer (nee White) Baird, and daughter Mary (1833) (National Archives of Canada)
(b. after 1808, Montreal - d. 20 Aug 1847, Montreal; m. engineer Nicol Hugh Baird, 21 Sep 1831 in Bytown (renamed Ottawa, 1855); on mother's knee in portrait is first-born child Mary Telfer Baird (b. 13 Sep 1832, Bytown - d. 25 July 1918, buried Paris, Ontario; m. Robert Thompson, MD); the Bairds had a total of eight children, four boys and four girls; Mary gave birth to twin girls one week before her death. Apparently Mary's father, prominent businessman and builder Andrew White (b. ca 1783, Scotland - d. 11 July 1832, Montreal; wife Mary) died in the same cholera epidemic which took Cook subjects Barnabas Dickinson and Parrit Blaisdell, a disease perhaps acquired at the Rideau Canal (opened May, 1832), where, like Mary's husband, White worked with Lt Col John By. As in other early Cooks, the sitters in this portrait are backed by a flat brown surface, but figures are detailed: the elder Mary wears 'sausage roll curls,' dark dress with puffed sleeves, white lace-trimmed blouse, a white, red and green shawl around her neck; jewelry, including earrings, necklace, brooch, and rings, underscore her station in society; baby Mary wears a medium-blue dress, ruffled lace eyelet cap, and red beads. s., d. verso. The Baird portraits [see Nicol Hugh Baird] are reported to be the oldest pair of family portraits in Ottawa's National Archives.)
George Malloch (1834) (Royal Ontario Museum)
(b. 1797 - d. 1870, Brockville, Ontario; lawyer and Judge of Johnstown District Court, centered at Perth and including the Bathurst District; would practice law with William Buell Richards, later Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Canada; brother of lawyer/judge John G. Malloch and apparently uncle of pioneering Canadian surgeon A. E. Malloch; from Brockville, a town near the St. Lawrence some 60 miles upriver from Cornwall, Ont., and Fort Covington, NY [see Barnabas Dickinson, Parrit Blaisdell]. Inscribed verso on canvas: Painted by Nelson Cook - 1834.)
Sally Malloch (nee Wells) (1834) (Royal Ontario Museum)
(m. George Malloch 1826. Apparently bore at least several children, including Sarah Ann Malloch, her eldest daughter. Inscribed verso on canvas: Painted by Nelson Cook - 1834.)
Alicia Fenton Samson (1835) (National Archives of Canada)
(b. 1799/1800 - d. August, 1878; nee Russell; married in 1828 to James Hunter Samson (d. 1836) and in 1838 to lawyer and speculator Charles Otis Benson (1811-1854); lived many years in Belleville, Ontario, died a widow in Aylmer, PQ; niece and ward of Sir John Harvey (1778-1852), Lt Col in the British Army, saw action in War of 1812, negotiator in the Maine boundary dispute, Gov of Newfoundland, Lt Gov of PEI, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Portrait inscribed on verso: Painted by N. Cook/A.D 1835 (incomplete).)
Reverend Joseph Hemington Harris (ca 1835) (Upper Canada College)
(b. ca 1831, London - d. 1881; Reverend Harris, MA LL.D, served as Principal of Upper Canada College (1829-38), assuming leadership during the first years of the school in Toronto; an 1893 school history notes the difficulties faced by UCC (cholera epidemics, crude infrastructure, etc.), praising Harris for his "arduous service," implementation of a traditional curriculum, and tolerance toward Catholic students, but apparently not linking him to financial laxity which marred the school's early years. (Today UCC is a college prep school of some 1000 students.) After UCC Harris went on to Tormorham/Torquay, Devon, on the SW coast of England, where he became curate of several united parishes; he is author of several works on theology. This portrait appears in the 1848 Exhibition Catalogue of the Toronto Society of Arts (item 382), available through the Art Gallery of Ontario; at the time of the exhibit (ie, '48), the painting was listed as belonging to F.W. Barron, Esq., then Principal of Upper Canada College, where the portrait still resides.)
Nathaniel Coffin (1835) (Glenbow-Alberta Institute, Glenbow Museum)
(b. Boston, ca 1776? - d. Toronto, 1846; Canadian military officer with a distinguished record in War of 1812; appointed Ensign 1783?; "mentioned in dispatches" after Battle of Queenston Heights; Dep Adjutant General (1813) and Adjutant General (1815), Upper Canada (Ontario) Militia; as ADC to Sir Rodger Sheaffe, said to have saved then-US Col Winfield Scott meeting with Sheaffe from violence at the hands of a Mohawk by putting a pistol to the latter's head. Portrait done for Mrs. William Coffin of Hamkerburg Canada West)
Sportsman from New York State (ca 1835-45) (Location unknown)
(Despite the date range offered, it should be mentioned that Cook was in Canada at least until 1839. Noted by Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS). [See Millard Powers Fillmore].)
Sir Francis Bond Head (1837) (National Gallery of Canada)
(b. 1793 - d. 1875; adventurer, soldier in British Army Engineers, author, controversial Lt Governor of Upper Canada (Ontario), 1835-38; quelled rebellion of 1837 [see Robert McVicar]; left Canada and public life in 1838. A number of mezzotint/engravings are associated with this portrait [not listed separately here]. A citizens committee in Canada sent this portrait to England to be made into a mezzotint; Queen Victoria refused to accept the proposed dedication of the print to her as she was upset at the way Head, whom some call "reactionary," had handled the 1837 rebellion. May be Cook's best-known portrait; it served as the model for the Bond Head portrait by George Theodore Berthon now held by the Ontario Legislature, Queen's Park, Toronto.)
Sir John Beverley Robinson (1837) (Location unknown)
(b. Berthier, Lower Canada, 1791 - d. 1863; in War of 1812 militia LT under Isaac Brock at Queenston Heights; also at Detroit and the taking of York (Toronto) by US forces, where he was captured; became Acting Attorney General in 1813, was Solicitor General after the War, and then returned to England to finish his legal studies; appointed Solicitor General once more and was elected to the Assembly in 1820; acted as Attorney-General until 1829, when he became Chief Justice (until 1862); Speaker of the Legislative Council and President of the Executive Council; first president of the Court of Error and Appeal; prominent member of the "Family Compact," a powerful group of wealthy, conservative Upper Canada office holders in the 1830s. Cook claimed him as friend and ally in his efforts to patent the Davenport "engine," describing him as "the most ultra tory [sic] in the Province -- a strong Church and State man -- & a bitter foe to Republic[an?]s [ie, Reformers?]… [he] virtually governs Upper Canada -- he has his prejudices, but he is a good & wise man…" [letter to Ransom, Toronto, 5 Dec 1836]. Father of John Beverly Robinson (1820-1887), who was a graduate of Upper Canada College in Toronto, ADC to Francis Bond Head, lawyer, mayor of Toronto, and Lt Governor of Upper Canada. Robinson Sr. painted as officer of militia; portrait apparently damaged and repainted in part.)
The Hon. (Dr.) John Rolph (1837) (Royal Ontario Museum)
(b. 4 Mar 1793, Thornbury, Gloucestershire, England - d. 19 Oct 1870, Toronto; known as the "Father of Medical Education in Upper Canada"; son of surgeon Dr. Thomas Rolph and Frances Petty Rolph, who emigrated to Canada ca 1808; John followed only in 1812 and returned to England to study both law (Cambridge) and medicine (Guy's & St Thomas's Hospital); in Canada he pursued both professions, was said to carry his legal briefs in one saddlebag, surgical gear in the other; fought the cholera epidemic of 1832 [which killed Barnabas Dickinson, Parrit Blaisdell, and the father of Mrs. Mary Telfer Baird]; active in politics, associated with ["the leader of," says Cook in letter, below] the Reform faction; represented Counties of Middlesex (1824) and Norfolk (1835); moved to York (Toronto, 1832) and started a med school; a secretive planner with William Mackenzie of the ill-fated 1837 Rebellion [see Francis Bond Head and Robert McVicar], he fled to Rochester, NY; returned to Toronto ca 1844, restarted a med school which eventually became part of Victoria College, where he was a controversial Dean; Minister of Crown Lands (1851-54). In a letter to Ransom [Toronto, 11 Oct 1837], Cook writes of the just-finished portrait, "it is painted for the Reformers of U.C. [I]t is to be engraved next spring…." [Was it?] Portrait 136X108 cm; listed in Toronto Society of Arts exhibit catalog for 1848 [see, eg, other TSA catalog works, Rev Harris and Gentleman]. Inscribed verso, on lining of the canvas: Painted by Nelson Cook S.A./U.C. 1837 [SA most likely refers to the Toronto Society of Artists and Amateurs. However, SA is sometimes used for sine anno = without year; even if so here, there is no doubt of the 1837 date. UC = Upper Canada]. ROM shows the portrait given by Rolph's son Thomas, 1934.)
Mary Amelia Dalrymple (nee Head) (1837) (Location unknown)
(Sister of Sir Francis Bond Head, daughter of James Roper and Frances Anne Head; m. Lt Gen Samuel Dalrymple 10 May 1831, the General d 1832. This portrait is assumed only from a mention in Cook's letter to Ransom from Toronto, 19 October 1837: "I am now painting Sir Francis Head's Sister, Mrs. Dalrymple". Whether he finished such a painting or whether it exists today is unknown.)
Alfred Patrick (1838) (Art Gallery of Ontario)
(Dates unknown. Chief Clerk of the House of Commons in Upper Canada (Ontario) Legislature for 37 years, followed by 13 years in the federal government until his retirement in 1879; married Tirzah Hopkins in 1837 -- the portrait apparently celebrated their marriage; their son was Allan/Alan Poyntz Patrick (1849-1948), prominent city father of Calgary.)
Tirzah Hopkins (1838) (Art Gallery of Ontario)
(Dates unknown; daughter of Caleb Hopkins, representative of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada (Ontario); m. Alfred Patrick in 1837; she and Alfred were the parents of Alan/Allan Poyntz Patrick (1849-1948), western rancher, surveyor, and prominent city father of Calgary.)
Edwin Forrest (1838?) (Location unknown)
(b. 9 Mar 1806 in Philadelphia, PA – d. 12 Dec 1872 in Philadelphia; mention of this painting appeared in an October 21, 1885 Utica Morning Herald newspaper article, which stated that Cook’s 1838 painting of Edwin Forrest as Shakespeare’s Coriolanus was being exhibited at a Rome, NY retail store. In all likelihood Forrest never sat for this portrait. Rather, while still in Canada honing his skills, Cook may have created his painting of Forrest from another artist’s rendering as a sample of his work for prospective sitters [see As a Portraitist]. Forrest was considered by many to be the first great “tragedian” of American theater; made his first acting appearance in 1820 and spent his career performing mostly Shakespeare to wide acclaim in the US and Europe; his personal life often outshone that of his stage characters: a simmering feud with actor William Charles Macready led to the NYC Astor Place Opera House riot killing 22 (1849), while a divorce trial pitting Forrest against wife Catherine Sinclair in 1851/52 produced sporadic performances thereafter.)
Portrait of a Gentleman (date?) (Location unknown)
(Displayed in 1847 at first exhibition of Toronto Society of Arts, catalog entry no. 121 ; catalog available at Metropolitan Toronto Library. Noted by SIRIS/Smithsonian American Art Museum, Pre-1877 Art Exhibition Catalogue Index.)