Biography triumphs in telling deaf artist's story

Brewster (1766-1854) was born deaf, the son of hearing parents. It was, as Lane says, a ''proud and privileged household." As a descendant of William Brewster, the Pilgrim leader, Brewster never lacked for prominent patrons. Some 250 of his paintings have been unearthed with, followers hope, more to come.

Brewster was a ''limner," an itinerant portrait painter. In many ways, he traveled apart from his limner peers, particularly those who were deaf. Because of his family's standing, he wasn't forced to trek from door to door around New England, portrait peddling. While he did allude to his ''unfortunate situation," he never signed his works ''sourd-muet" -- ''deaf mute" -- as did other deaf artists of his time.

Lane, an authority on deafness and professor in the psychology department at Northeastern University, explains in the biography -- which is tied to an exhibition tour of Brewster's work -- that Brewster's gift was manifest by age 25. At the outset of his career, he did make an appeal for sympathy. For example, records of 1779 confirm he advertised his services as an artist in a Poughkeepsie, N.Y., journal. ''All who may please to favor him in his unfortunate situation will be satisfied," the ad read. That subservience would in time give way to a self-assurance that coincided with a maturity of his style.

Brewster's career also nicely paralleled the rise of what the author calls ''the Golden Age of American portraiture" and closed with the advent of the daguerreotype, an early form of photography.

According to Lane, Brewster's works reflect an ''affirmation of family." In fact, one of the most insightful chapters examines Brewster's and his society's treatment of children. His paintings transcend the changing attitudes, from portraits of children as ''emotionless . . . miniature adults" to a public sense that ''adults were corrupt, but children's hearts and minds were innocent; they were little angels," notes Lane. (He points out that Brewster never married, perhaps because, like many other deaf, he feared foisting deafness on his progeny.)