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1940-360, Portrait
Portrait of a Woman, said to be Dorothea Spotswood (later, Mrs. Nathaniel Dandridge, ca. 1728-1773)
1940-360, Portrait

Portrait of a Woman, said to be Dorothea Spotswood (later, Mrs. Nathaniel Dandridge, ca. 1728-1773)

Dateca. 1740
Possibly by Charles Bridges (1670 - 1747)
OriginAmerica, Virginia
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 30" x 25" (76.2 cm. x 63.5 cm.); Framed: 31 1/4" x 27 1/4" x 1 1/2"
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1940-360,A&B
DescriptionA framed half-length portrait of a plumpish, middle-aged woman, set within feigned spandrels and posed against a dark, overall, warm brown background. Her curled, hanging hair is scarcely noticeable against the background color. Her hands do not show. She is tured 3/4 to the viewer's right, her head turned left, her eyes on the viewer. She has a pronounced double chin. She wears a white ruffled chemise under a red, brown (or dark blue?) bordered wrap.
The frame has not been examined as of 4/21/2009.
Label TextIn his study of the work of Charles Bridges and William Dering, Graham Hood ("Bibliography") explained his uncertainty over the question of whether this badly worn, now heavily restored portrait might be attributable to Charles Bridges. If the portrait can, indeed, be credited to Bridges, then longstanding family tradition identifying the subject as Dorothea Spotswood Dandridge (1728?-1773) must be in error, as Bridges only painted in America between 1735 and 1745. During this period, Dorothea Spotswood would have been too young for the matronly appearance of the subject. Hence, both artist and subject identities remain highly questionable. The date of the painting is also uncertain, since the subject wears a loose drape (a type of "undress") that was fashionable for portraiture over a long period of time, leaving only her vaguely defined hairstyle as a fashion and, therefore, date clue.
Dorothea Spotswood, the third child of Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia during 1710-1722, and his wife, Anne Butler Brayne, married Nathaniel West Dandridge in 1747. The date of her birth is not firmly documented, but her parents' 1724 London marriage provides a solid frame of reference.
ProvenanceIf the sitter's tentative identification as Dorothea Spotswood Dandridge is correct, then the portrait possibly came into the Moore family with the marriage of the subject's sister, Anna Katherine Spotswood (d. 1802; the two women were daughters of Governor Alexander Spotswood), and Bernard Moore (ca. 1720-1775). If so, the painting likely then descended as follows:
From the above couple to [his nephew?] Bernard Moore II (d. 1806); to his widow, Lucy Leiper Moore (d. ca. 1812); to [her son?], Andrew L. Moore (d. 1828); to his wife, Ann Nelson Moore (d. 1865/1866); to her daughter, Lucy Moore Robinson.
Lucy Moore Robinson and her husband sold "Chelsea" (the Moore family plantation home in King William Co., Va.) in 1870 and moved to New Kent Co.. Va., taking this and other family portraits with them.
By 1898, from Lucy Moore Robinson to her son, Leiper Moore Robinson, Sr., of Bowling Green, Va.; sold on 19 October 1898, (along with five other portraits) to his niece, Mrs. Isaac Newton Jones (nee Louise Beverly Turner)(1866-1943), who was CWF's vendor.