Portrait of Hannah Erwin Israel (Mrs. Israel Israel)(1756-1813)

Dateca. 1775

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 30 x 26in. (76.2 x 66cm) and Framed: 35 3/4 x 31 3/4in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Object number1956.100.2

DescriptionOil portrait of seated woman, almost full length, feet missing. Woman is seated in a wooden sidechair. (Chippendale back) which is turned slightly to sitter's right. Background is brownish-grey. Woman sits solidly in chair her legs apart, her hands resting on her legs. She wears a darkgreen dress with a full skirt, three quarter length sleeves and a square neckline with a sheer white kercheif which reaches to her waist in a "V" shape. She holds a red book slightly open in her right hand. On her head she wears a white sheer lace cap with pointed top pleated into a ribbon band, and tied beneath her chin with a small green bow. Her hair is brown and her eyes blue. The artist demonstrated some interest and ability in creating the rich folds of her dress. Mid-nineteenth-century replacement 2-inch stained bolection molded frames with gilt inner and outer borders.
Label TextIn 1775, Hannah Erwin married Israel Israel (see acc. no. 1956.100.1), a Pennsylvania-born entrepreneur who made a fortune in Barbados before returning to his native country. The couple was married in the Holy Trinity Church (Old Swede's Church) in Wilmington, Delaware. She was the daughter of John and Letitia Erwin of Wilmington.
The young couple settled near New Castle, Delaware, shortly after their marriage and maintained close ties with the Israel family in Philadelphia during the ensuing years. Israel Israel was a member of the Committee of Safety during the Revolutionary War. The British briefly jailed him as a spy in 1777 (note 1). After the Revolution he served as high sheriff of Philadelphia from 1800 to 1804 and as grand master of the Masonic Order of Pennsylvania in 1802 and 1804.
The identification of the subjects of the paired Israel portraits is based on a resemblance between his image and a likeness of Israel as an old man (see note 2). Furthermore, the ornate silver buttons on Israel's coat sleeves and lapels are still owned by his descendants (note 3)..
Hannah Erwin Israel's high-crowned transparent white lace bonnet is similar to those seen in portraits of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Quaker women, and the absence of sleeve ruffles on her dark green dress also suggests a Quaker background. However, such a religious affiliation has not been documented.
Although the unidentified artist attempted realism in the costumes and features of both Israels' portraits, they are highly stylized. Both figures are placed so close to the foreground that their feet were left out of the compositions. The unusual ankle-length poses and the under-life-size of the subjects suggest that the painter was foreign, possibly a member of the large Scandinavian community that populated northern Delaware. The style of both portraits, though clearly less polished, is reminiscent of the academic likenesses created some years earlier in Philadelphia by Gustavus Hesselius, a Swedish immigrant whose brother once served as minister to the Swedish community in Delaware (note 4).

Note 1: Elizabeth F. Ellet, THE WOMEN OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, I, 6th ed., (NY, 1856), pp. 155-167.
Note 2: Hannah R. London, PORTRAITS OF JEWS BY GILBERT STUART AND OTHER EARLY AMERICAN ARTISTS (NY, 1927), pp. 26-28. See also John W. Jordan, COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY FAMILIES OF PENNSYLVANIA; GENEALOGICAL AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS, I (NY, 1911), pp. 248-249.
Note 3: London, PORTRAITS OF JEWS, p. 26, illus. on p. 111.
Note 4: E. P. Richardson, PAINTING IN AMERICA FROM 1502 TO THE PRESENT, rev. ed. (NY, 1965), pp. 30-31.

ProvenanceThe Old Print Shop, New York NY. John D. Rockefeller Jr.

Exhibition(s)