Portrait of Harmony Child Wight (Mrs. Oliver Wight) (1765-1861)

Date1786-1793

Attributed to The Beardsley Limner (active 1785-1805)

OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, Sturbridge (probably)

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOther (Unframed): 31 1/4 x 25 1/2in. (79.4 x 64.8cm) Framed: 34 1/2 x 28 7/8 x 1 7/8in. (87.6 x 73.3 x 4.8cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1957.100.10

DescriptionOil portrait of young woman seated in green hoop back windsor facing slightly to her left with rich blue drapery behind her with fringe and blurred landscape behind her and to her left. Half length view. She wears a black shawl across her back with blurred lacy fringe, a white under scarf, beige skirt, long beige tight fitting sleeves, a white glove on her right hand which rests on chair arm with floral embroidery on top of glove and holds white folded fan in her right hand with red decorations. All details of costume so blurry so as to be undefinable. She wears a high crowned white bonnet, which is sheer and has wide pink ribbon as band with bow at top. Ribbon has yellow and black floral decoration. Brim of bonnet is pleated and very sheer so that girl's forehead and hair are visible. Brown eyes, and long black hair dressed loosely hangs below shoulders. Vague colors in right background behind sitter's left indicate a landscape setting, and rich blue curtain forms background for her head. All details are soft and muted.
Label TextThe portraits of Oliver and Harmony Wight are two of the Beardsley's Limner's strongest and most effective pictures. The artist used a series of triangles to structure both compositions. He emphasized the carefully painted faces and attempted to individualize the features, especially the arch of Wight's nose. The hair, the beribboned and ruffled bonnet, and the modish beaver hat were also handled rather precisely in contrast to the sketchy painting of the shawl, shirt and‚ coat buttons. The curtains and bushes behind the Wights are not merely decorative but define the heads and serve to link and to balance the compositions in terms of color and design when they are hung together.
Oliver Wight was born in Sturbridge, Mass, on September 27, 1765, and lived there inter- mittently most of his life. When he was twenty-one, he married Harmony Child, who is thought to have been born in 1765 in Woodstock, Conn. For the next seven years, Wight worked as a cabinetmaker and built a substantial house and barn on land given him by his father. Oliver Wight's house still stands on its original location and is now owned by Old Sturbridge Village.
MarkingsNone found
ProvenanceIsabel Carlton Wilde, Cambridge, Mass.; Edith Gregor Halpert (2); Boris Mirski Art Gallery; M. Knoedler & Co.(67).