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Gustavus Hesselius was born in 1682 at Folkarna, Dalarne, Sweden. He belonged to a family conspicuous for learning and piety. His father and four brothers were clergymen, and his maternal uncle was the father of Emanuel Svedberg, or Swedenborg, founder of the Swedenborgian Church. A nephew attained distinction as an artist.
Gustavus Hesselius arrived May 1, 1711, at Christina (now Wilmington), Delaware, with his brother Andreas, who had been commissioned by Charles XII to take charge of the church there. A few weeks later he went to Philadelphia “on account of his business” but remained there only a few years. Somewhat later he may have lived for a short time in Wilmington, as one of his children was baptized there in 1716. Between 1716 and 1720 he removed to Prince George’s County, Maryland, where he remained until the early thirties, when he returned to Philadelphia to live there until his death in 1755.
Contemporary records indicate that Hesselius began his American career as a painter. Although nearly forty portraits in public and private collections are attributed to him, the attribution in many instances is decidedly questionable. Very few signed portraits by him are known. The painting that has given Hesselius a distinctive position in the history of the fine arts in America is the large and elaborate altar-piece, “The Last Supper, ” which in 1721 he was commissioned by the vestry to paint for St. Barnabas’ Church, Prince Georges County, Maryland. This was the first public art commission in the colonies of which we have a record. This painting, for which he received £17, was removed when the church was demolished in 1773 and is now in a private collection. He also painted a “Crucifixion. ”
Of his first Philadelphia period almost nothing is known, nor have any portraits definitely attributable to him then been traced. Of his Maryland period, covering some fifteen years from about 1718 to 1733, little is known except what is gleaned from the church records and from the dozen or more Maryland portraits by him still extant. After his return to Philadelphia about 1735 and his purchase in that year of a house on High Street, he becomes less nebulous. A number of portraits painted by him in this second Philadelphia period are known. Two very characteristic portraits are those of himself and his wife Lydia in the Pennsylvania Historical Society. The portraits of the Rev. John Eversfield and his wife, his neighbors in southern Maryland, and those of Thomas Bord- ley, attorney-general of Maryland, and of the Rev. William Brogden, are equally typical, all showing the peculiar modeling and the sombre colors which he so much used. In “The Last Supper, ” which seems to be an original composition, the same coloring is employed.
In his latter years Hesselius seems to have devoted more time to organ-building and after about 1750 to have diverted as much portrait work as possible to his son John.
Brought up as a Swedish Lutheran, in Maryland Hesselius affiliated with the Church of England. Afterwards in Philadelphia he joined the Moravian Brethren. A few years before his death, however, he reverted to his original Lutheran faith.
Gustavus Hesselius married, probably in Philadelphia or Delaware, his wife Lydia, whose family name is unknown.
