Portrait of Edmund Pendleton (1721-1803)

DateProbably 1800-1840

MediumOil on cotton ticking (see "Curatorial Remarks")

DimensionsUnframed: 27 7/8" x 23 1/8" (70.8 cm. x 58.7 cm.) and Framed: 32 5/8" x 27 7/8" x 2 1/4" (depth includes projecting backing, etc.; frame depth per se = 1 3/4")

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1930-589

DescriptionA half-length portrait of a man, his hands not shown, turned 3/4 towards the viewer's right, his eyes directed at the viewer. He wears a full-bottomed white wig, white neck cloth, black coat, and black waistcoat and has light blue eyes. There is no setting as such, and the background is a dull brown.

The 2 5/8-inch ornate, rococo-style gilt frame with projecting corner elements is a replacement dating ca. 1750-1770 (and probably was drawn from within the collection, although it has not yet been identified by acc. no.)

Label TextThe circumstances surrounding the execution of Colonial Williamsburg's portrait of Virginia patriot and jurist Edmund Pendleton are unknown, but the likeness probably derived from a pre-existing image rather than being done ad vivum (from life).

The painting was once ascribed to Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Although such an attribution is now considered untenable, the source for the painting likely was a miniature on ivory done by a pupil of Peale's, William Mercer (1773-1850). The two likenesses are very similarly composed. Yet sufficient distinctions between them exist to suggest that someone other than Mercer authored Colonial Williamsburg's picture.

Mercer was the deaf-mute son of General Hugh Mercer of Fredericksburg, Virginia. He studied painting with Peale in Philadelphia from 1783 to 1786, but few extant paintings are indisputably linked to him, making attributions difficult.
ProvenanceThe portrait's provenance given below was reconstructed from the following three documents: (1) Cornelia Pendleton Mayo's typed statement of March 13, 1930 (copy in CWF object file); (2) the recorded history at the Frick Art Reference Library, New York, NY (email from Louisa Wood Ruby, FARL, to B. Luck, December 13, 2005; copy in CWF object file); and (3) Cornelia Pendleton Mayo's letter of October 31, 1929, to Dr. W. A. R. Goodwin (copy in CWF object file):

From the subject's nephew, Dudley Diggs Pendleton; to his widow, Mrs. Dudley Diggs Pendleton of Shepherdstown, W. Va.; sold by her to MissCharlotte Pendleton, of Washington, D. C.; to her niece [or great-niece?], Mrs. Claude Mayo (nee Cornelia Marcy Pendleton) of Washington, D. C.; sold by her to "a cousin in Baltimore" in 1928 [Mayo letter to Dr. W. A. R. Goodwin, 10/31/1929]; presumed to have been bought back from said cousin by Mrs. Mayo; sold to CWF by Mrs. Mayo in 1930