Portrait of Thomas Coleman (ca. 1775-1856)

Date1811

MediumWatercolor on laid paper

DimensionsPrimary Support [irreg.]): 14 x 12in. (35.6 x 30.5cm); Pictorial Composition: 12 7/8 x 10 1/2in. (32.7 x 26.7cm); As matted 6 September 2004: 14 7/8 x 12 1/2in. (37.8 x 31.8cm); Outer margins, at greatest: 7/8in. (2.2cm)

Credit LinePartial gift of Lindsay C. and Leslie B. Grigsby

Object number2004.300.1

DescriptionA profile bust-length portrait of a man facing left. He wears a blue coat with orange and black buttons, a patterned yellow and orange vest, and a white collar and stock. His face is tinted pink. He has green eyes and dark brown hair that hangs over his forehead and curls up slighly over his collar in the back. The background is painted a solid medium blue. A 3/4-inch border of unpainted paper is left around the image. Small holes and folded edges suggest that the primary support was once mounted on stretchers or, more likely, on a solid support such as a wooden panel.

Artist unidentified.

The original frames for this portrait and its companion (see 2004-86) were lost prior to CW's acquisitioning; former owner Lindsay Grigsby added the present frames sometime during 1991-2004.
Label TextThomas Coleman of Orange County married Elizabeth Kay of Caroline County (both, in Virginia) October 27, 1796. He was a magistrate in Orange County during 1812-1822 and a trustee of the Orange Humane Society at the time of its inception. Thomas and Elizabeth Coleman had twelve children.
Although the artist of the Coleman portraits has not been identified by name, other watercolor profiles of Virginia subjects have been attributed to the same hand.
MarkingsThe primary support bears the watermark "Gilpin & Co."
ProvenanceThe portrait and its companion, 2004.300.2, descended in the family of the sitters to Mary Dickenson of Culpeper, Virginia, who left them to her great-great nephew, Lindsay Grigsby, who was CWF's source