Portrait of Charles Henry Ellis (1822-after 1841; 1907?)

DatePossibly 1840

Attributed to Charles Burton (1782 - after 1847)

MediumWatercolor and pencil on wove paper

DimensionsPrimary support: 10 5/16" x 8 3/16" and Framed: 12 7/8" x 10 11/16" x 1 7/16"

Credit LineGift of William Warner Moss III, Richard Knight Moss, and Anne Paxton Moss in honor of their father, William Warner Moss, Jr.

Object number1993.300.1

DescriptionA bust-length profile portrait of a young man looking to the left. His hair is collar-length, straight, and light brown. He wears a blue coat, black tie, green figured waistcoat, and white shirt. No chair or wainscoting is visible. The view behind him is a mountainous landscape including a body of water.
The 1 5/8-inch gilded, splayed frame with an outer bead is original.
Label TextThe subject has long been identified by family tradition as a son of Robert Ellis, Sr. (1780-1843) of Fredericksburg, Virginia, almost certainly Charles Henry Ellis (b. 31 October 1822), who went "to Richmond to live in a store," according to a letter from Robert Ellis to his daughter, dated 18 October 1840. How Charles Henry Ellis was engaged in Richmond remains undetermined, as does the date and place of his death.
Charles Burton advertised in the Richmond [Virginia] Compiler October 23-November 18, 1841, that he had opened a "perspective drawing school," adding that "his pupils learn more of practical Sketching from real objects, in a few lessons, than is usually taught in many years." Having formerly rendered drawings of various inventions for the U. S. Patent Office, he also, in Richmond, advertised his willingness to teach "Machine Drawing, sectional and perspective, with Architecture, etc." Although his ad emphasized non-portrait work, he concluded by stating "Pencil or Colored LIKENESSES truly taken, with the Camera Lucida, at 3 to $8 each."
An optical device, the camera lucida, projected a virtual image of an object onto a plane surface, especially for tracing, and thus functioned similarly to a camera obscura. Many artists used these (or other, related, image-taking tools) which were particularly helpful in recording shapes, such as profiles, which constituted Burton's predominant portrait pose.
Burton depicted a large number of Richmond sitters. An 1840 death date for one and the youthful aspect of another, born in 1833, indicate that the artist accommodated some subjects prior to running his 1841 ad. It has not been determined whether he visited the city on multiple occasions or made one extended stay.
InscribedOn the reverse of the frame, on the right side and incised in block letters on a diagonal slant, appear the letters "C H E" with "18" both above and below the letters. On the wooden backboard of the original frame is incised "18 (yrs?)" and, in a second place, "18." These numerals are thought to refer to Ellis's age at the time his portrait was executed.
ProvenanceThe portrait descended from the sister of the subject, Mrs. Alexander McNutt Paxton (Mary Louisa Ellis) of Vicksburg, Miss.; to her daughter, Mrs. William Lee Green (Mary Margaret Paxton); to her grandson, Warner Moss, Jr., of Williamsburg, Va.; to his three children, William Warner Moss III, Richard Knight Moss, and Anne Paxton Moss, who were AARFAM's donors.