Portrait of Captain James Fairfield (1784-1820), artist unknown, oil on canvas, circa 1810.
Brick Store Museum Collection, 75.13.

Captain James Fairfield’s portrait came home to Kennebunk because of the piece of paper Fairfield is portrayed as holding in his hand. It bears the company name of Fairfield's employers, “Messrs. Tobias Lord & Co., Kennebunk, Maine”. The portrait, rolled and sealed in a waterproof case, was found floating off the Carolina coast by a passing Swedish vessel, whose captain saw to it that it found its way to Kennebunk. It is surmised that Fairfield had commissioned the portrait while in an overseas port and arranged to have the painting sent home--perhaps to his wife--on a different vessel which was ultimately lost at sea. When the portrait did turn up in 1822, a full two years after Fairfield's death, it was given to Fairfield's sister, Polly Lord, as Fairfield's widow had passed away in 1821.

The painting returned to the Kennebunks a second time when it came to the Brick Store Museum via one of Polly Lord’s descendants. A replica of the portrait also hangs in Kennebunkport’s Captain Fairfield Inn. That property was built in 1813 on land given to Captain Fairfield and his wife as a wedding present.

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