Q: I have this painting by Augustus G. Heaton of Sophie Brice dated 1871. The painting measures 23.5” high x 19.5” wide; the frame is 31.5” high x 27.5” wide. There is a metal tag below the picture with the artist’s name, Sophie Brice, and 1871. I bought it at an auction and no one else was bidding on it. Any information you can give me will be gratefully appreciated.

A: Augustus Goodyear Heaton (April 28, 1844-Oct. 11, 1930) was an American artist, author, and leading numismatist. He is best known for his painting “The Recall of Columbus” and among coin collectors for writing “A Treatise on Coinage of the United States Branch Mints,” which introduced numismatists to mint marks.

Heaton worked as a teacher in Philadelphia at the Art Students’ League of Philadelphia and was one of the founding members of the New Rochelle Art Association, organized in 1912, and part of the well-known art colony that had developed in New Rochelle in the early 1900s.
Most of Heaton’s paintings are portraits. His most fam-ous painting, and the one of which he was most proud, was “The Recall of Columbus,” painted in 1882 and copyrighted in 1891 as the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ landing approached. It was begun in his Paris studio and finished in Rome in the studio of American sculptor Chauncey Ives. The painting was sent to the U.S. Capitol in 1884 to be reviewed by the Joint Committee on the Library, purchased later that year for $3,000, and remains part of the United States Senate Art and History Collection. In 1892, the painting was exhibited at the Colombian Historical Exposition in Madrid in 1892 and again in 1893 at the World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago. Also in 1893, to mark the Chicago Exposition, was the release of the Colombian Issue, a set of 16 commemorative stamps issued by the United States. The 50-cent stamp featured “The Recall of Columbus,” bringing the painting to the attention of the general public.

Heaton painted a large number of portraits during his travels. Those travels included New York City in the late 1870s; Paris, France, in the early 1880s; Philadelphia (1884); Washington, D.C. (1885); and then West Palm Beach, FL. In 1890, 1892, and 1930, he was in New Orleans, where he gave art lectures and painted portraits of numerous prominent citizens.