Joseph Badger

Joseph Badger (c. 1707–1765) was a portrait artist in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 18th century. He was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, to tailor Stephen Badger and Mercy Kettell. He "began his career as a house-painter and glazier, and ... throughout his life continued this work, besides painting signs, hatchments and other heraldic devices, in order to eke out a livelihood when orders for portraits slackened." In 1731 he married Katharine Felch; they moved to Boston around 1733. He was a member of the Brattle Street Church. Works by Badger are in the collections of the Worcester Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and Historic New England's Phillips House, Salem, Mass. While respected in his own time, subsequent scholars and connoisseurs largely overlooked Badger's significance until Lawrence Park wrote a book about him in 1918.

Portrait subjects James Bowdoin (1676–1747), father of Massachusetts governor James Bowdoin Josiah Flagg & Jane Flagg Greene, descendants of Jane Franklin, sister to Benjamin Franklin William Foye Esther Orne Gardner (ca. 1714-1755) Ellis Gray (1715–1753), pastor of Old North Church, Boston John Haskins (1729–1814), grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson John Homans (1753–1800), doctor Joseph Jackson (1707–1790) John Larrabee (1686–1792), commanding officer of Castle William, Massachusetts Rev. Dudley Leavitt (1720–1762) Mrs. Dudley Leavitt (née Mary Pickering) (1733–1805), sister of Timothy Pickering Elizabeth Marion (1721–1746), wife of William Story, and grandmother of Joseph Story John Marston (1715–1786), proprietor of Boston's Bunch-of-Grapes tavern during the Revolution Lois Orne, wife of William Paine (physician) Thomas Prince William Scott, shoemaker, Boston Elizabeth Storer, wife of Boston merchant-shipowner Isaac Smith (1719–1787) William Tyler (1688–1758), business partner of Thomas Hancock Cornelius Waldo (1684–1753)

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