Justus DaLee (October 1, 1793 – January 5, 1878) was an American

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...

ist born in

Pittstown, New York Pittstown is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The population was 5,540 at the 2020 census. It is in the northern part of the county. A small part of the northern town line is Renssel ...

to James Waterman DaLee and his wife, Anstis Kinnicutt. He married Mary Fowler October 13, 1816 at White Creek, New York, and they had ten children. He served as a musician in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

and was a professor of

penmanship Penmanship is the technique of writing with the hand using a writing instrument. Today, this is most commonly done with a pen, or pencil, but throughout history has included many different writing implement, implements. The various generic a ...

. DaLee was a school teacher in New York State and is also known to have worked in Massachusetts. He was known for his miniature

naïve art Naïve art is usually defined as visual art that is created by a person who lacks the formal education and training that a professional artist undergoes (in anatomy, art history, technique, perspective, ways of seeing). When this aesthetic is ...

side portraits. Media used were

mixed media In visual art, mixed media describes work of art, artwork in which more than one Art medium, medium or material has been employed. Assemblages, collages, and sculpture are three common examples of art using different List of art media, media. M ...

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

, and

ink Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. ...

. The earliest dated record of Justus DaLee's activity is a fifty-two page sketchbook entitled "Emblematic Figures, Representations, and Etc., to Please the Eye." He died on January 5, 1878, in Eden, Wisconsin and is buried in the Odekirk Cemetery, Eden, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin.

References

* Davenport, Ray; ''Davenport's Art Reference: The Gold Edition''; 2005 * Dunbier, Lonnie Pierson (Editor); ''The Artists Bluebook: 34,000 North American Artists to March 2005''; 2005 * Rumford, Beatrix; ''American Folk Portraits from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center''; 1981 American folk artists 19th-century American painters American male painters 1793 births 1878 deaths People from Washington County, New York Painters from New York (state) American military personnel of the War of 1812 People from Eden, Wisconsin {{US-painter-stub