Robert Feke

According to art historian Richard Saunders, "Feke's impact on the development of Colonial painting was substantial, and his pictures set a new standard by which the work of the next generation of aspiring Colonial artists was judged." In total, about 60 paintings by Feke survive, twelve of which are signed and dated.

Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Work by Robert Feke is recorded in the collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art, Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Toledo Museum of Art, Gilcrease Museum and Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

One of Robert Feke's grandmothers was Elizabeth Fones (Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett). Little is known for certain about his life, particularly his early years. Only one work by Feke, a portrait of a child, is datable before 1741. In that year he moved to Boston, where he painted Isaac Royall and Family (1741), a group portrait which borrows its composition from John Smibert’s The Bermuda Group (1729). Feke's works also show the influence of John Wollaston. From 1741 until 1750, Feke worked in Boston, Newport, Rhode Island, and Philadelphia, painting wealthy merchants and landowners. The latest record of his activities is August 26, 1751; suggestions by Feke's early biographers that he died in Barbados or Bermuda have not been substantiated.

• Benjamin Franklin, Portrait (c. 1746) at the Fogg Museum, Harvard University Portrait Collection • Charles Apthorp, Portrait 1748, oil on canvas, Cleveland Museum of Art American • Grizzell Eastwick Apthorp, Portrait (Mrs. Charles Apthorp) (1748) at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco • Mrs. John Banister, 1748, oil on canvas, The Detroit Institute of Arts • William Bowdoin • John Channing, c. 1747–49, oil on canvas 127 x 102, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston • Mary Channing (Mrs. John Channing), c. 1747–49, oil on canvas 127 x 102, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston • Tench Francis, Sr., Portrait at the Metropolitan Museum of Art • Captain Alexander Graydon, c. 1746, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art American Museum of Fine Arts • Thomas Hopkinson, Portrait at the Smithsonian Institution • Ralph Inman • Susannah Speakman Inman • Hannah Speakman Rowe • Isaac Royall and Family, Portrait, 1741, Historical & Special Collections, Harvard Law School Library • Edward Shippen, Portrait of Chief Justice, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art • Isaac Winslow, c. 1748, Oil on canvas 127 x 102, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

• Illustration — Portrait of a Young Woman (1740s), Washington County Museum of Fine Arts • Illustration — Portrait of Susannah Speakman Inman, c. 1748 • Illustration — Portrait of Hannah Speakman Rowe, c. 1748 • Illustration — A portrait of Benjamin Franklin c. 1746–1750, by Robert Feke widely believed to be the earliest known painting of Franklin • Illustration — Mrs. Charles Willing (1746), Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library • Illustration — Susannah Boutineau (1748) • Illustration — Portrait of Elizabeth Francis (c. 1748) • Illustration — Tench Francis Sr. (1746), Metropolitan Museum of Art • Illustration — Portrait of Elizabeth (Erving) Bowdoin • Illustration — Portrait of James Bowdoin II • Illustration — Portrait of William Bowdoin (1748) • Illustration — Portrait of Robert Apthorp by Robert Feke, c. 1748 • Illustration — Portrait of Grizzel Eastwick Apthorp • Illustration — Ralph Inman (1748) • Illustration — Isaac Winslow (c. 1748), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston • Illustration — Portrait of a Woman (Mrs. Lucy (Waldo) Winslow (c. 1748), Brooklyn Museum