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Portrait 2006-143
Portrait of Nathaniel Burwell (1750-1814)
Portrait 2006-143

Portrait of Nathaniel Burwell (1750-1814)

Dateca. 1790
Attributed to Matthew Pratt (1734-1805)
OriginAmerica, Virginia
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 44 1/2 x 34in. (113 x 86.4cm) and Framed: 48 1/4 x 38 1/8in.
Credit LineGift of David C. Wade, Jr., in memory of his mother, Ellen Hay Wade
Object number2006-143,A&B
DescriptionA three-quarter-length portrait of a seated man turned three-quarters to the right, his proper left hand thrust within his coat, his proper right forearm resting on the arm of his chair and this hand holding a book with a finger thrust between the pages. He wears a white ruffled shirt, white neckcloth, white waistcoat, and dark [black?] coat and breeches. He sits in an upholstered open armchair, the upholstery fabric seemingly brocade. The background is a plain, warm-toned brown, and no setting is depicted beyond the chair.
The 2 1/2-inch black-painted, cyma recta molded frame with a gold-painted liner appears to be an early nineteenth-century replacement.
Label TextStylistic and circumstantial evidence suggest Matthew Pratt was the artist, but the attribution remains tentative, particularly since relatively few examples of Pratt's work survive. Pratt worked in the Williamsburg area in 1773, but this likeness is thought to have been done later, perhaps on an undocumented visit.
Nathaniel Burwell was born at "The Grove" (later, "Carter's Grove") plantation, the son of Carter Burwell and Lucy Ludwell Grymes. Nathaniel inherited Carter's Grove in 1755, at age six, at which time he became a ward of his uncle-by-marriage, Thomas Nelson of Yorktown. He was a student at the College of William and Mary and, in 1772, was awarded the school's first Botetourt Medal for natural philosophy. (Two medals were given annually over a four-year period, 1772 through 1775, one for classics and one for natural philosophy; Colonial Williamsburg owns the medal won by Burwell, acc. no. 1982-502).
Burwell married, first, on March 28, 1772, his first cousin, Susannah Grymes (d. 1788) and, second, on January 24, 1789, Lucy Burwell Page Baylor (1759-1843), the widow of Col. George W. Baylor.
Among other responsibilities, Burwell was a member of the James City County Committee of Safety in 1774; the chief military officer of James City County in 1776; the representative from James City County in the House of Delegates in 1781; and a member of the Board of Directors for the Public (Williamsburg) Hospital for Lunatics.
About 1792-1795, Burwell built "Carter Hall" in Clarke County, Virginia, and by 1799, he had removed to that home leaving management of "Carter's Grove" in the hands of his son, Carter Burwell (b. 1773). The elder Burwell built several mills and established a vineyard, tanyard, distillery, and other industries near his Clarke County home. He was a member of the Vestry of Cunningham Chapel Parish, and he gave land on which to erect a "place of public worship and burying ground." Old Chapel (near Millwood) still stands (2007), and it was in the cemetery here that Burwell and his second wife were buried.

InscribedNo original inscriptions were found. The word "Hay" in black paint appears on the back of one strainer and on the back of the corresponding frame member. See "Provenance."
ProvenanceFrom the subject to his daughter, Mrs. James Hay (Elizabeth Gwynn Burwell) (1795-1855); to her son, William Hay (1832-1864) of "Farnley," Frederick Co., Va.; to his son, James Hay (1856-1931); to his daughter, Ellen Douglas Hay Wade (1892-1973); to her son, David Carlisle Wade, Jr., CWF's donor.