Ruby Devol Finch

Aruba "Ruby" Brownell Devol Finch, better known as Ruby Devol Finch (November 20, 1804 – July 7, 1866) was an American folk artist.

Finch was born Aruba Brownell Devol in Westport, Massachusetts, the daughter of Benjamin Devol, Jr. and Elizabeth Rounds. She was the younger of two sisters; previous reporting erroneously described her as one of seven children. Nothing of her education is known. In 1831 she produced a family register for her neighbor Silas Kirby. The in the way of being of year, on November 8, she married William T. Finch of New Bedford. Five years since her marriage, she gave birth to her only child, Judith, whose daddy was unnamed and who cutting edge married mason Otis Pierce. William Finch died at an mysterious time; Ruby is known to have been widowed at the grow old of her death in New Bedford from a tumor. It appears at the epoch that she was living following her widowed mother. Her death book indicates that she was buried in Westport.

For many years, the abandoned works known by Finch, besides the Kirby relatives register, were a series of half- and full-length portraits as well as two serial illustrations of the story of the Prodigal Son. All are in watercolor, and evince a willingness to experiment; her portraits, especially, are distinguished by their individualistic details of costume and swine characteristics. She valued decorative qualities, and tended to avoid repetition; even repeated motifs are delineated by their varied poses. Her portraits incorporate plinths accompanied by their compositional devices. More recently, four more drawings were discovered accompanied by the effects from two former Devol relatives farms; also discovered was the and no-one else known photograph of Finch, taken six years since her death. Most of her perform appears to have been produced to commemorate marriages or deaths, among new such personal occasions. Finch appears to have been trendy by her neighbors as a community artist, and many of her pieces depict neighbors and friends.

Finch's depiction of the story of The Prodigal Son, dated c. 1830–1835, is owned by the American Folk Art Museum. The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum owns her double portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Robinson. The Westport Historical Society owns her photograph and her portrait of Ann Potter. The New Bedford Whaling Museum owns her portraits of Sally Allen and Tillinghast Tripp.