Portrait, Miss Gibbs

Dateca. 1725

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 30 1/8 x 25 3/16in. (76.5 x 64cm) and Framed: 34 7/16 x 29 5/8 x 1 3/4in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1991-122,A&B

DescriptionPortrait, Miss Gibbs. Young woman in red dress against brown background. She is painted in half length. She is set in a spandrelled frame, the oval is medium warm brown on the viewers left a darker brown on his right. She has long chestmut brown hair which is pulled back and ten falls in ringlets to slightly below her shoulders. The skin of her neck and chest is creamy white. She has large slightly elongated brown eyes which glance back to her right. Her nose is large and castes a shadow on the right side of her face. Her neckline is low and ends in a V. One can see the white over lace of her undergarments below the neckline of the dress and there is an odd white lace area at the V of her neckline with a round shape (perhaps a pin?) below it. Her sleeves reach just below her elbow where they are folded back in large cuffs to show the white lace and cuff of her shirt. Her left arm is hidden but her right hand is up holding a slip of greenery, with leaves (small) and some small red flowers on it. She holds the plant gracefully, and appears to have been examining it as hse looks up at the viewer. She wears a rich brown cape which is over her left shoulder and fastened to her right shoulder with a buckle. A strap holds this buckle across her front from her right shoulder tot he left side of her waist.
The 2 1/2-inch, black-painted, bolection molded frame is
Label TextThe pose and composition of this picture are nearly identical to, and were probably derived from, a 1720 mezzotint of Sir Godfrey Kneller's portrait of Queen Anne of England (1720-1714). The colonial American painter simplified his version by using a conventional plain background with a feigned oval format and by diminishing the exuberant dress folds to simple overlaps and broadly painted areas of color. This simplification also appears in the artist's treatment of Miss Gibbs's arm, neck, and the right side of her head, which are strongly highlighted but are flat and limited in model¬ing.

It is not possible to identify the sitter with a specific New York family, but the general style of her likeness is similar to the many extant paintings that were painted in the area about the same time. It shares a tendency toward highly stylized facial features and the use of standardized English academic poses and gestures.

ProvenanceProvenance: J. Stuart Halladay and Herrel George Thomas, Sheffield, Massachusetts. In 1991, transferred to Collections from AARFAM, where it's accession no. had been 1958.100.37.