Description:

William Foster

Study of Applegate's Landing, Leonardo, New Jersey
Watercolor
Signed l.l. Together with a photo of a seagull and an oil on canvas, landscape signed l.r. "Franz
Mayer".

(Foster) The artist's first name was William but he was known as Will Foster. He was an illustrator and lived at 82 Highland Ave., Leonardo, Middletown Township, NJ. The Foster Studio became Donald DeLue's Sculpture Gallery and Studio. Donald De Lue was born in Boston in 1897.

He began as a sculptor at the age of 12 and continued for 79 years. He moved to Leonardo in 1962 and died there in 1988. His large scale commissions included memorials at Gettysburg Battlefield and Valley Forge. His sculpture "Rocket Thrower" was the centerpiece image of the 1963 World's Fair. One of his best-known medals is "Bursting the Bounds" done in 1986 when he was 89.

William Applegate (1726 - 1776) was born on his grandfather's homestead farm at Applegate's Landing on Raritan Bay in Middletown Township, Monmouth County, NJ. His father, Richard, had succeeded to the farm, where he and his wife raised eight children. When Richard died in 1732, he left all his land, upon Rebecca's death or remarriage, to his young son William. In 1741 at the age of fifteen, William was apprenticed to Patrick Jackson, a New York cabinetmaker, for the term of five and a half years "to learn the art, trade, and mystery of a joiner." Although Jackson does not appear on any documented lists of cabinetmakers in New York, he must have been a master craftsman judging by the quality of work that William was able to produce after learning from him. Shortly after completing his apprenticeship, William returned to Monmouth County where he appears as a "carpenter" or "joiner" on deeds and land transfers between 1749 and 1775. William married Elizabeth Ogborn in 1758 and they had eight children. He died at the early age of fifty on 24 October 1776. Writing in the early twentieth century, historian Dr. John E. Stillwell stated that "pieces of furniture, that [Applegate] wrought with his own hands, are in the possession of his descendants. He succeeded to the homestead and worked the lands devised him by his father. He prospered in his worldly affairs, and increased his landed estate by purchases, and at his death was the owner of several hundred acres of land, in the vicinity where he lived, as well as slaves and other personal property." Stillwell owned Applegate's account book covering the years 1756 to 1776. It is now part of the John E. Stillwell Collection at the New-York Historical Society. While much of the work it documents was carpentry on houses, barns and outbuildings, there are scattered references to making furniture, especially coffins. In May of 1764, for example, Applegate billed George Taylor 9 pounds "To a black walnut Case of Draws." Three years later, there is an entry in John Mount's account "To making a desk & finding part of the bords" for 2 pounds, 10 shillings. Just before his death, on 30 May 1775 Applegate charged Obadiah Bowne 10 pounds "To a chest of draws." Other citations indicate that this versatile carpenter/joiner produced tea tables, tables of cherry and bilsted, cradles, close stools, and chests.

Provenance: (Foster) The Forster studio at 82 Highland Ave. Leonardo NJ. was taken over by Donald DeLue, a sculptor. S. Travers and Gertrude Neidlinger lived on the same block as DeLue. Travers was an artist and gave art lessons in schools and he bought the Applegate's Landing watercolor from Will Foster. Gertrude was the curator of the Spy House in Port Monmouth and helped to preserve it by making up legends about the house. All the objects in the Neidlinger's house, include the painting by Will Foster, were bought by a Point Pleasant antiques dealer after their deaths. The Foster watercolor was then sold to Joseph W. Hammond, Freehold, New Jersey.

  • Dimensions: Sight: 6 1/2 x 9 3/4 in. (16.5 x 24.8 cm.), Frame: 15 x 14 3/4 in. (38.1 x 37.5 cm.)
  • Medium: Watercolor

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