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DS1992-0604
Portrait of John Blair, Jr. (1732-1800)
DS1992-0604

Portrait of John Blair, Jr. (1732-1800)

DateProbably 1792-1793
Attributed to William Joseph Williams (1759 - 1823)
OriginAmerica, Virginia (probably)
MediumPastel on blue-colored, handmade, laid paper attached to linen canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 18 7/16 x 14 1/2in. (46.8 x 36.8cm) and Framed: 19 5/8 x 15 3/4 x 1in.
Credit LineGift of Margaret and Seymour St. John
Object number1986-242
DescriptionA bust-length portrait of a man set within feigned spandrels. A deeply receding hairline gives way to reddish, collar-length hair that curls at the sides of his head. He has blue eyes. He wears a black coat with large buttons. His white neck cloth and white waistcoat are both modeled with blue and gray. The background is a medium blue, the spandrels gray streaked with pink.

The 1-inch black-painted, molded frame appears to be original; it bears newspaper lining and two hanging rings in the top member. It is constructed with a stepped rabbet typical of those noted in frames for some other early pastels, presumably having been intended to hold the glass off the face of the pastel.
Label TextBlair was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, the son of John Blair Sr. and Mary Monro Blair. The sitter attended the College of William and Mary and then traveled to London, England, to study law at Middle Temple. In 1756, he married Jean Balfour in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was admitted to the bar the next year. After returning to Virginia, Blair served as a member of the House of Burgesses and, after the collapse of the royal government in 1775, the Virginia Convention. A delegate to the constitutional convention of 1787, he was appointed to the new United States Supreme Court in 1789. His house still stands on the Duke of Gloucester Street in Williamsburg.
Blair’s portrait is typical of Williams’s inexpensive pastel likenesses that show the sitters set within oval formats with corner spandrels. The artist probably drew Blair when he was living temporarily in Richmond, Virginia, in 1792–93. Williams also visited Fredericksburg and Alexandria, Virginia, during that period.

ProvenanceThe portrait descended in the subject's family. The following speculatively reconstructed line of descent is based primarily on information from CWF's donor, with some life dates supplied by CWF files: From the subject to his niece, Mary Monroe Cary (Mrs. William Samuel Peachy)(1764-1836); to her son, Thomas Griffin [or A.?] Peachy (1794-1864); to his son, William S. [or G.?] Peachy; to his daughter, Sally Campbell Peachy (Mrs. J. B. C. Spencer); to her son, Dr. John Blair Spencer; to his daughter, Margaret Gordon Spencer (Mrs. Seymour St. John), who was CWF's donor.
Exhibition(s)