Portrait of Dr. William Horace Twyman (1811-1876)
Date1843
Artist
John Toole
MediumOil on canvas in original gilt frame
DimensionsFramed: 33 1/2 × 28 1/2in.
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund
Object number2021.100.1,A&B
DescriptionPortrait of a man seated at a table. The man is wearing a black stock, waistcoat, and coat over a white shirt. The table is covered with a green broadcloth, on which rests a wooden box containing physicians tools.Label TextOrphaned eleven-year-old John Toole immigrated from his native Ireland to Charlotteville, Virginia, in 1827. Apparently self-taught, the teenaged Toole was a painting portraits professionally by the early 1830s. His letters and diaries record the trials and tribulations of itinerant work, as well as the scope of his travels, from Martinsburg in northern West Virginia to Petersburg in southern Virginia.
Toole’s papers also confirm that he painted multiple members of the Twyman family in Madison County, Virginia. William Twyman was born there in 1811, and later attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Returning home, he worked as a physician until his death in 1876. Toole alludes to Twyman’s profession by including a wooden case of physicians’ instruments in this composition.
Inscribed"Dr. Wm. H. Twyman painted by J. Toole May 1st 1843."
ca. 1745
1824-1830 (probably; see n. 1)
ca. 1820
ca. 1835
1760-1770
