Portrait of Frances Bragg [later, Mrs. James Cuthbert](1792-1852)

Date1811 or 1812

Artist Cephas Thompson (1775-1856)

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 30 5/16 x 25 3/16in. (77 x 64cm) and Framed: 36 1/2 x 31 1/2 x 3in. (92.7 x 80 x 7.6cm)

Credit LineBequest of Lucy L. and Louise M. Powell and gift of Francis T. S. and Grace E. Powell

Object number1956-271

DescriptionA half-length portrait of a young woman facing right. Her hands are not shown. She sits in a side chair. A soft red drape falls over the back of the chair and is pulled forward to either side of her, barely showing between her arms and her body. She wears a white dress embroidered with dots and a very low, square neckline. The dress also has short puffed sleeves and a very high waistline circled by a white satin belt cinched in front with a gold clasp. One of her drop pearl earrings is visible on her proper R ear. Her dark brown hair is parted in the middle and caught in a knot at the back, with her side hair falling in ringlets around her face; a few longer ringlets hang from her back knot and are pulled forward to hang over her proper R shoulder. The background is a dark cloudy sky.

The 3 1/2-inch gilded frame is probably original. It is made of a softwood (est. by eye as a conifer 3/20/2003) and consists of, at the sight edge, a flat plane and scoop molding separated by a strip of egg-and-dart ornamentation, plus an outer frame of sanded scoop molding.
Label TextPortraitists varied widely in their ability and willingness to travel in search of commissions. Cephas Thompson was more peripatetic than most, periodically leaving his native New England to paint in such far-flung destinations as Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana. The austere, near monochromatic color scheme of this portrait and of its companion (of James Cuthbert) may reflect a broader, developing taste for grisaille (painting in shades of gray).
The artist's Memorandum of Portraits combined with his Norfolk newspaper advertisements indicate that the Cuthberts were painted a few months before their June 2, 1812 marriage. James Cuthbert was a merchant in Norfolk, Virginia. He died prematurely, reportedly lost at sea, little more than two months after the July 3, 1813, birth of the couple's only child, a daughter named Henrietta. In later life, Frances Bragg Cuthbert lived with her daughter and son-in-law, Dr. Francis T. Stribling, in Staunton, Virginia.

InscribedNone found. See "Notes" regarding documentation of the artist ascription.
ProvenanceFrom the subject to her daughter, Mrs. Francis Taliaferro Stribling (nee Henrietta Frances Cuthbert)(1813-1889); to her eldest child, Mrs. Hugh Lee Powell (nee Ella Matilda Stribling)(b. 1833); to her three children, Lucy Lee Powell (b. 1868), Louise M. Powell (1871-1943), and Francis T. S. Powell (b. 1874).
File information indicates that Lucy Lee Powell either bequeathed, or expressed interest in bequeathing, her share of the painting to CWF. Louise M. Powell bequeathed her share of the painting to CWF.
In an agreement dated January 28, 1944, CWF gave to Francis T. S. Powell any interest in the painting it may have received via the wills of Lucy Lee Powell and Louise M. Powell; in the same agreement, Francis T. S. Powell and his wife, Grace
E. Powell, gave their (by then, total) interest in the painting to CWF but retained right of possession within their lifetimes. Grace E. Powell outlived her husband but decided to turn the painting over to CWF prior to her own death; accordingly, the painting was delivered to CWF in October 1956 (about the time Grace E. Powell moved from Staunton, Va., to Baltimore, Md.)