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No image number on slide
Portrait of Lydia Lord Lester (Mrs. Moses Lester) (1749-1806)
No image number on slide

Portrait of Lydia Lord Lester (Mrs. Moses Lester) (1749-1806)

Date1780-1800
Possibly by Joseph Steward (1753 - 1822)
OriginAmerica, Connecticut, Preston
MediumOil on panel
DimensionsUnframed: 9 x 6 3/16in. (22.9 x 15.7cm) and Framed: 11 x 8 1/2in.
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1958.100.27
DescriptionA bust-length portrait of a woman turned slightly towards the viewer's right, her eyes to the viewer, seated in a Chippendale-style side chair, the ears of which are visible beyond her shoulders. The oval composition does not include her lower arms or hands. She wears a dark brown gown, the shoulders and bodice covered with a white, lace-edged kerchief that displays a serpentine design on the side nearest the viewer; the ends of the kerchief are gathered togther with a pin or brooch just above her waist. She wears a black cord choker and a large white, shoulder-length, ruffled cap with a bow on top. She has dark brown hair and brown eyes. The background is a warm brown.

Artist unidentified.

The 2-inch molded and gilded oval frame is original.
Label TextTwo other bust-length portraits depicting Preston, Connecticut, women in nearly identical poses and attire have been recorded, a correspondence that has never been fully explained. Debate continues regarding whether they are by the same artist who painted Mrs. Lester. Unlike Lester's portrait, both are oil on canvas and measure about 19x17 inches. They represent Lucy Ayer Avery (Mrs. John Avery)(1759-1846) and Sybil Tracy Coit (Mrs. Wheeler Coit); husbands of both these women were also painted (but unlike the wives' portraits, the husbands' bear no resemblance to one another). In recent years, the four Avery and Coit portraits (and two others of two of the Coits' children) have been published as the work of Joseph Steward (1753-1822), largely based on an entry in the account book of Preston clockmaker and silversmith John Avery, which indicates that Avery paid Steward's wife £5/4/0 for "2 Likenesses." The handling of the Coit boy's facial features seems especially analogous to that exhibited by Lester's image.

Steward was a minister but is best known today for his artistic interests. One of his most ambitious portrait commissions consisted of two full-length likenesses of worthies associated with Dartmouth College. He is also known for having established one of the earliest museums in America. A Hartford, Connecticut, newspaper announced the opening of his cultural emporium on June 5, 1797, describing its contents as a "collection of paintings and some other natural and artificial curiosities."

InscribedWritten in pencil in nineteenth-century script on the reverse of the panel is "Mrs. Moses Lester/of Griswold/The home of Grandmother John Johnson/(Lydia Morgan Johnson)." Regarding Griswold (vs. Preston as the origin of this portrait), see Note n. 1.
ProvenanceJ. Stuart Halladay and Herrel George Thomas, Sheffield, Mass. Halladay died in 1951, leaving his interest in their jointly-owned collection to his partner, Thomas. Thomas died in 1957, leaving his estate to his sister, Mrs. Albert N. Petterson, who was AARFAC's vendor.
Exhibition(s)