Elias V. Coe appears to be the physician named Elias Van Arsdale Coe, born in Springfield, New Jersey, 9 June 1794. A genealogy of the Coe family notes that Elias Van Arsdale Coe moved to Warwick, Orange County, New York, where he married his cousin, Phebe Burt, in 1821. "Dr. Elias Coe" is mentioned as one of the first portrait painters in Warwick in an early history of that town; he died there 11 October 1843. Mr. and Mrs. Henry W. Houston, who sat in 1837 for their portraits, signed by Coe, were also from Warwick. Coe joins the list of physician-folk artists such as Samuel Broadbent (1759-1828), Jacob Maentel (1778-1863), Rufus Hathaway (1770-1822), and Samuel A. Shute (1803-1836), who found that a number of talents were needed for success in the new republic. [This is an updated version of the artist's biography published in the NGA Systematic Catalogue]
Artist Bibliography
1908
Hornby, Mrs. E.B. Under Old Rooftrees. Jersey City, 1908: 197.
1974
New-York Historical Society. Catalogue of American Portraits in The New-York Historical Society. 2 vols. New Haven and London, 1974, 2:818.
1992
Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 70.