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Lot Essay
Beautiful and richly colored, this portrait of a lady is a particularly captivating work by the eighteenth-century Charleston artist Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Known for his straightforward likenesses, Theus depicted his subjects’ faces as they appeared with little improvement and among Theus’s oeuvre, this portrait is distinguished by the sitter’s attractiveness. The portrait is unsigned, as are the vast majority of surviving Theus portraits, but even if it was not associated with the signed example in the preceding lot, it displays all the hallmarks of Theus’s invention. Her elongated nose, upturned, ‘V’ shaped lips, and downward arc on her chin relate closely to the facial features seen on many Theus portraits (David B. Warren et al., American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection (Princeton, 1998), p. 176). In pose and facial details, this portrait is closely related to Theus’s portrait of Mrs. Paul Trapier III, née Elizabeth Foissin (1758-1836) (Margaret Simons Middleton, Jeremiah Theus: Colonial Artist of Charles Town (Columbia, South Carolina, revised edition, 1991), pp. 104, 168).
For his sitters’ dress and accessories, especially those of women, Theus often borrowed from English printed sources. Here, for example, the sitter’s hairstyle, with flowers on the crown, and her lace ruff are seen in mezzotints of a 1759 portrait of Lady Erksine by Allan Ramsay (see The British Museum, acc. no. 1902, 1011.6420). Other details such as the blue silk drapery may have been a prop owned by the artist. Drapery of the same color and placement is seen in Theus’s 1757 portrait of Mrs. Gabriel Manigault, née Anne Ashby (1705-1782). Mrs. Manigault’s diary recounts her sitting for the artist three times in April and May of 1757 and receiving the finished portrait in July. It is likely that the sitter of the portrait offered here followed a similar schedule, with Theus painting her face from life and then adding her dress and background in his studio (John Caldwell, Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, and Dale T. Johnson, American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vol. 1, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born by 1815 (New York, 2013), p. 41). As he painted the faces and bodies separately, Theus frequently used devices, such as the lace ruff on this portrait, to ease the transition between the two (for a similar ruff see Theus’s portrait of Mrs. John Moore, née Elizabeth Vander Horst (1737-1790), illustrated in Middleton, p. 93).
As discussed in the essay for the preceding lot, the sitter of this portrait is thought to be Lady Colleton, née Anne Fulford (1742-1823). Her family seat was Great Fulford, an early sixteenth-century stately home near Exeter, Devon, which is still occupied today by her collateral descendants. On one of his brief trips back to England, Sir John Colleton 4th Baronet (1738-1777), whose family also hailed from Devon, married the seventeen-year-old Anne Fulford in 1759 and the couple settled on his South Carolina estate, Fairlawn Plantation. Theus may have painted her portrait soon after her arrival in the Charleston area in late 1759. Supporting this theory, the presence of flowers in both her hair and her hand suggests that it is a marriage portrait and the 1759 date is likely given the portrait’s similarities to the dated 1757 portrait of Mrs. Gabriel Manigault.
Lady Colleton gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Carolina Colleton (1763-1822), in 1763, but four years later returned to England alone and after giving birth to a son there, her marriage to Sir John Colleton was dissolved in 1772. If this portrait represents Lady Colleton, it would have been shipped along with her husband’s or separately to the Colleton family home in Withycombe Raleigh, Exmouth, Devon before 1767, when both portraits are thought to have passed into the possession of the Collins family and then descended to the Trelawny-Ross family (for full history, see essay to preceding lot).
For his sitters’ dress and accessories, especially those of women, Theus often borrowed from English printed sources. Here, for example, the sitter’s hairstyle, with flowers on the crown, and her lace ruff are seen in mezzotints of a 1759 portrait of Lady Erksine by Allan Ramsay (see The British Museum, acc. no. 1902, 1011.6420). Other details such as the blue silk drapery may have been a prop owned by the artist. Drapery of the same color and placement is seen in Theus’s 1757 portrait of Mrs. Gabriel Manigault, née Anne Ashby (1705-1782). Mrs. Manigault’s diary recounts her sitting for the artist three times in April and May of 1757 and receiving the finished portrait in July. It is likely that the sitter of the portrait offered here followed a similar schedule, with Theus painting her face from life and then adding her dress and background in his studio (John Caldwell, Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, and Dale T. Johnson, American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vol. 1, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born by 1815 (New York, 2013), p. 41). As he painted the faces and bodies separately, Theus frequently used devices, such as the lace ruff on this portrait, to ease the transition between the two (for a similar ruff see Theus’s portrait of Mrs. John Moore, née Elizabeth Vander Horst (1737-1790), illustrated in Middleton, p. 93).
As discussed in the essay for the preceding lot, the sitter of this portrait is thought to be Lady Colleton, née Anne Fulford (1742-1823). Her family seat was Great Fulford, an early sixteenth-century stately home near Exeter, Devon, which is still occupied today by her collateral descendants. On one of his brief trips back to England, Sir John Colleton 4th Baronet (1738-1777), whose family also hailed from Devon, married the seventeen-year-old Anne Fulford in 1759 and the couple settled on his South Carolina estate, Fairlawn Plantation. Theus may have painted her portrait soon after her arrival in the Charleston area in late 1759. Supporting this theory, the presence of flowers in both her hair and her hand suggests that it is a marriage portrait and the 1759 date is likely given the portrait’s similarities to the dated 1757 portrait of Mrs. Gabriel Manigault.
Lady Colleton gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Carolina Colleton (1763-1822), in 1763, but four years later returned to England alone and after giving birth to a son there, her marriage to Sir John Colleton was dissolved in 1772. If this portrait represents Lady Colleton, it would have been shipped along with her husband’s or separately to the Colleton family home in Withycombe Raleigh, Exmouth, Devon before 1767, when both portraits are thought to have passed into the possession of the Collins family and then descended to the Trelawny-Ross family (for full history, see essay to preceding lot).