Portrait of Mrs. Briggs

Dateca. 1840

Attributed to Charles Burton (1782 - after 1847)

MediumWatercolor and pencil on wove paper

DimensionsPrimary support: 10 1/8 x 8 1/8in. (25.7 x 20.6cm) and Framed: 13 15/16 x 11 11/16in.

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1936.300.2

DescriptionA bust-length portrait of a woman, presumably seated (see acc. nos. 1936.300.1 & 3). She faces forward, turned slightly toward the viewer's right, and looks slightly past the viewer to the right. There is no chair or other support visible, but the window ledge is about right for a seated portrait. Directly behind her is a dark, red-tinged draped curtain and behind this, in the upper right corner, part of a dark blue drape is visible. Behind her on the left is a gray marble (or marbelized) column. The wainscoting visible beyond her on the right is gray with a brown window ledge above. Through the window on the right is a view of foliage, a mountain, dark gray sky, and what appears to be the lower window sash. She has green or hazel eyes, prominent cheeckbones, and a rather long face. In comparison with the facility with which the artist has rendered the rest of the portrait, her lips are ineptly done, giving her mouth a pursed, drawn look (see Remarks). Her smooth brown hair is center-parted and held by a narrow black band; the tip of a comb is visible behind her bare, proper right ear, and in front of her ear hang two long corkscrew curls. She wears a black dress trimmed in a "V" of ruching, with more ruching on the sleeves above a puff. At the neck is a simple dotted collar trimmed in eyelet; underneath this, and tied at the neck in a bow, runs a wide pink ribbon or tie. Below the bow knot she wears a rectangular gold-edged black pin showing a rose or other flower in white.
The 2-inch mahogany-veneered splayed frame is possibly original.
Label TextNineteenth-century portraitists commonly relied on a number of mechanical and/or optical devices to facdilitate accurate image-taking, and the precise outlines of this subject strongly suggest such usage. Indeed, Burton advertised "Pencil or Colored Likenesses truly taken, with the Camera Lucida, at 3 to $8 each" in the Richmond (Virginia) COMPILER for October 23, 1841. The camera lucida incorporates a prism or mirrors and often a microscope to project an image onto a plane surface so that its outline can be easily traced. While it aided in the transmittal of any image, it was particularly useful in rendering profiles (which, in any event, were simpler to depict than full-face or three-quarter images).

The identitites of this subject and those represented in two companion portraits (1936.300.1 and 1936.300.3) remain uncertain. The three were identified as "Mr. and Mrs. Briggs" and "Mary Briggs" by the dealer who sold the trio to Mrs. Rockefeller in the 1930s. They may be Dr. Robert Briggs (d. 1838), his wife Mary (1811-1872), and their daughter, all of Richmond. Of more than forty portraits now ascribed to Burton's hand, Mrs. Briggs is his only sitter not shown in profile.
InscribedOn the reverse, in the lower right corner in pencil, appears: "Briggs/ 300.36" an accession number used by Mrs. Rockefeller.
ProvenanceMaude Pollard Hull, Richmond Va.; Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Given to CWF by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.