[From the catalogue-in-progress for “Landscapes & Livestock”, a loan exhibition for Agincourt Homecoming in the Fall of 2015]

NEWMAN, Joseph [1890-1979]

Portrait of Amity Burroughs Flynn

ca1920

oil on board / 12 inches by 9 inches

Amity Burroughs Flynn (Mrs Edmund FitzGerald Flynn) survived her husband by several years, during which she made amends for his short but corrosive tenure as mayor of Agincourt. Amity—as she preferred to be called—organized the famous G.A.R. exhibit of 1912, the very gathering of local art that formed the core of our Community Collection. This portrait was painted by New York artist Joseph Newman about 1920, possibly while he was in Europe.

The prolific Newman is represented in several public and private collections:

Joseph Newman was born in N.Y.C. in 1890. He attended the Pratt Institute and the Adelphi College Art School. Newman served in the U.S. Army during W.W.I. After the war, he married and travelled to Europe. He came home in the mid 1920’s to form, with a group of contemporaries, The Fifteen Gallery in Manhattan. Newman exhibited frequently at the Brooklyn Museum, The National Academy, The Carnegie Institute, The Whitney and The Society of Independent Artists.

He was a member of the L.C. Tiffany Foundation, The Salmagundi Club, Rockport Art Association, and the American Watercolor Society. His work is represented in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, The Newark Museum, the Boston Library, and the Library of Congress. Newman was the recipient of many awards throughout his career.

Because the Flynns were childless, Amity’s nephew Jed Burroughs inherited her estate. He gave her portrait to the Community Collection as a memorial, though none was necessary because of her support for the visual arts.