Background
There is a degree of confusion about the dates of birth and death of Blackburn. 1730 is usually posited as the year of birth but it is at best an estimate. He seems to have been the son of a painter.
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Joseph Blackburn
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Blackburn had a well-formed style; resided at Boston, Massachussets, and Portsmouth, N. H. ; painted industriously among the wealthy colonial families; and probably went to Jamaica with one of his sitters, Sir Alexander Grant, who became governor in 1764. No portrait by Blackburn later than 1763 has been found. His style somewhat suggests that of the English painters Thomas Hudson (1701 - 1779) and Joseph Highmore (1692 - 1780). Noteworthy portraits attributed to Blackburn are those of Jeffrey Amherst, Theodore Atkinson (Sr. and Jr. ), Joshua Babcock, Mrs. Nathaniel Barrell, Mrs. John Bours, Rev. Peter Bours, Mrs. Thomas Bulfinch, Mrs. Wiseman Claggett, Mary Holyoke Cutts and Samuel Cutts, Mrs. Thomas Deering, Mary Faneuil, Mary Brown Greenleaf, Mrs. Thomas Hancock, Daniel Henchman, William B. Johnson, Lady Pepperell, James Otis, Joshua Warner, and Joshua Winslow.
