Portsmouth found deep in the heart of Texas

As I strolled through the American Art section of the Dallas Museum of Art, I was taken aback. In front of me here deep in the heart of Texas was a little bit of Portsmouth - portraits of Woodbury Langdon and his wife Sarah.

Langdon was a native of Portsmouth through and through. He attended Latin grammar school in Portsmouth and later went to work in the counting house of Henry Sherburne, a prominent local merchant. (Wikipedia).

In 1765, at the age of 26, Langdon married Sherburne's daughter Sarah who was only 16 at the time. When the portraits were painted, the Langdons had been married two years and Sarah was 18. In the course of their 40 year marriage, Sarah gave birth to 12 children.

Woodbury's younger brother John, another Portsmouth native, is perhaps better known. He was a Revolutionary War patriot who led the attack on Fort William and Mary to seize British munitions. He was a member of the Continental Congress and one of the first two U.S. Senators from our state. Later, John Langdon became the governor of New Hampshire. His home, a National Historic Landmark, is located on Pleasant Street in Portsmouth.

At the time of the portraits, Woodbury Langdon had become a wealthy man. The label accompanying the portraits in the Dallas Museum of Art reads in part, "When newly rich New Hampshire merchant Woodbury Langdon, wanted to commission portraits of himself and his eighteen-year-old wife, Sarah, two years after their marriage, there was no question of any other artist in Boston, indeed,  in the colonies for the job."

Langdon selected John Singleton Copley.  According to WebMuseum, Paris, "Copley is considered the finest painter of colonial America . John Singleton Copley painted portraits and historical subjects. His Boston portraits show a thorough knowledge of his New England models, and his talent as a draftsman and colorist produced pictures of artistic elegance and grace."

Well, encountering portraits of New Englanders in a Dallas art museum was a surprise. So, be on your guard. With summer vacation season fast (we hope) approaching, you may find famous Granite Staters popping up in the unlikeliest places. A statue of Franklin Pierce at an IHOP restaurant in Nebraska. A likeness  of Daniel Webster spray painted on a railroad car in the Bronx . A photo of Robert Frost tacked to a bulletin board at a YMCA in Orlando. You never know.

Gary Patton is the author of "Outtastatahs: Newcomers' Adventures in New Hampshire." "Outtastatahs" can be purchased at River Run Bookstore in Portsmouth; the Galley Hatch Restaurant gift shop in Hampton; The Water Street Bookstore in Exeter; Gibson's Bookstore in Concord and on-line at barnesandnoble.com. Both paper and Kindle versions can be obtained at amazon.com.