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Portrait 2018.100.1
Portrait of Elizabeth Macon Yancey (Mrs. Joel Yancey) (1789-1847)
Portrait 2018.100.1

Portrait of Elizabeth Macon Yancey (Mrs. Joel Yancey) (1789-1847)

Dateca. 1820
OriginAmerica, Virginia, Bedford County
MediumOil on wood panel
DimensionsOH: 26 3/8 in.; OW: 21 1/2 in.
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund
Object number2018-257
DescriptionPortrait of a woman in an orange plaid dress and green shawl. A see-through lace cap hides most of her dark brown hair with the exception of a few curls on her forehead. She is seated in a chair, probably a Windsor, before a brown background. A red drape takes up the upper right corner.
Label TextElizabeth Macon Yancey was born in 1789 to John Macon and Grace Cowan Macon of Powatan, Virginia. She was the second wife of Louisa County native Joel Yancey, the son of Captain Robert Yancey who served on George Washington’s staff during the Revolutionary War. Following their marriage in 1809, Joel and Elizabeth lived at Rothsay, a brick mansion in Campbell County where Joel worked as superintendent to Thomas Jefferson’s neighboring “Poplar Forest.”

The inventory taken following Joel’s death in 1833 illuminates Yancey’s success and provides a cultural backdrop for the painting. It begins with a list of 28 slaves, which when totaled had a value of $6,650, the most significant portion of the estate. The inventory of household and kitchen furniture includes a mahogany sideboard and press at $100, seven bedsteads including one of “fine mahogany,” tea boards, a set of gilt tea china, a bookcase with books and maps, and two dozen Windsor chairs. Against this backdrop of gentility hangs Mrs. Yancey’s portrait, depicting her in a comfortable morning dress, wearing a fashionable, ruffled, surplice-front, cotton gown and a starched organza day cap with a netted lace ruffle embroidered with leafy white-work sprigs.

InscribedChalk inscriptions on the reverse of the panel include several messages, seemingly in the artist’s hand. He includes a rough frontal sketch of a seated woman, slightly more than half length. Beneath the drawing, the artist used white chalk to inscribe a broad shallow “x” with a scroll over the crossing. In the left quadrant of the X, he has inscribed three words in white chalk--“without a chair”. These suggest that he was instructing the client of the options for laying out the portrait. To the right, he has inscribed the name “Yancey”.

B) Frame, South Carolina, ca. 1820
ProvenanceThe portrait was acquired by it's previous owners from a local auction conducted in Prince Edward County, Virginia.