Robert Feke
1706/10 - 1750?
American artist. Robert Feke was apparently self-taught, a seaman and painter born in Oyster Bay, L.I., who is recorded as having traveled and painted throughout the English North American colonies. The portrait of Franklin, believed painted between 1738 and 1746, is attributed to him on the basis of its similarity to other works known to have come from him, and to the the painting's descent in the family of Franklin's elder brother, John. Sellers writes a lengthy discussion of the painting in his chapter 3, pp. 24-45, and briefly in the catalogue, p. 281.