Images(2)

Portrait of Sarah Bell

Date1808

Artist William Joseph Aldridge (1751 - after 1813)

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Fauquier County

MediumPastel on paper

DimensionsPrimary support: 23 x 18 3/4in. and Framed: 24 13/16 x 20 1/2 x 1 1/4in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1978-140,A&B

DescriptionA bust-length portrait of a young woman in a blue, short-sleeved dress with a sheer white ruffle around the square neckline. The sleeves are pulled up and tied with white ribbons and edged in sheer white ruffles. She wears a locket around her neck, the side facing the viewer appearing to show the letter "C" in hairwork, with a bright blue (presumably enamel) surround and hung from a gold chain. Her dark brown hair is gathered on top of her head with curls framing her face, a tortoiseshell comb near the center top front of her head. Her proper right hand is raised to show she holds a rose sprig. The dark blue background is lighter along the right side of her face.
Label TextThis pastel portrait was acquired with two others of members of the Bell family of Faquier County, Virginia, but the sitters' exact identities and their relationships with one another have not yet been defined. William Joseph Aldridge signed two of the portraits, including this one; the third is attributed to the artist based on its stylistic similarity to the others and to additional signed examples of the artist's work. Earmarks of Aldridge's style include elongated heads, long, thin-bridged noses, almond-shaped eyes with the pupils placed abnormally high in the irises, and full lips separated by a long line and set off by heavy shadow below the lower lip.

The miniature portrait case that Sarah Bell wears on a gold chain is reversed to show the back with the letter "C" in hairwork.
InscribedThe white pine backboard consists of two separate pieces; they appear to have been so originally (vs. one piece that subsequently broke into two). Dark brown ink inscriptions in script run parallel to the longer (vertical) dimension of each of the two pieces. On the larger piece are three unconnected inscriptions. The first is: "8 Bell/1808". The second is: "Sarah Bell/1808 [space] By Aldridge". The third, facing in the opposite direction, is: "S. Bell's/Likeness L". On the smaller piece of backboard is: "Fauquier/County/Virginia".

See 1978-139 for a similar inscription in the same hand.
Provenance1978-140, -139, and -141 were all "found in a house being razed," according to an intermediary, Mrs. William J. Lloyd of Arlington, Va., who wrote on behalf of Georgia Luthy, the seller; the location of the house was never given and remains unknown.