Miniature Portrait of Joseph Prentis (1754-1809)

Dateca. 1770

MediumWatercolor on ivory in gold case, with accompanying leather-covered storage box

DimensionsPrimary support, sight: 1 9/16 x 1 1/4in. (4 x 3.2cm); Framed (Encased): 1 15/16 x 1 5/16 x 1/4in.; and Other (Storage box received with portrait): 7/8 x 3 3/4 x 3 1/4in. (2.2 x 9.5 x 8.3cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1998-1,A

DescriptionA miniature, bust-length, oval-format portrait of a young man wearing a white, ruffled shirt and white neck cloth with a green waistcoat and green coat, both the latter bearing self-covered buttons. His brown hair is cut short, his eyes pale brown or hazel. The background is a warm brown, shaded darker to the viewer's left and lighter to the viewer's right. The image is enclosed in a gold case fitted with a hanging loop at the top; the back of the case retains part of a clasp that, intact, would have afforded the option of wearing the case as a brooch. (At the time of receipt, the piercing bar was missing). A leather-covered box (see 1998-1,B) encloses the whole.
Label TextJoseph Prentis, the son of William Prentis (1699-1765) and Mary Brooke Prentis (1710-1768), was a resident of Williamsburg. After study at the College of William and Mary, he received his law license in 1774, and he represented Williamsburg at the December 1775 Virginia Convention. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, he was appointed commissioner of the Admiralty and, in 1779, was named to the Council during Patrick Henry's governorship. In 1777, he represented Williamsburg in the first House of Delegates. For the next ten years, he represented York County and, in 1788, was elected Speaker of the House. From 1789 until his death in 1809, he served as judge on the Virginia General Court.

In 1778, Prentis married Margaret Bowdoin, the daughter of John and Grace Bowdoin of Northampton County, Virginia. Four of their eight children survived to adulthood: Joseph Prentis, Jr. (1783-1851). John Brooke (1789-ca. 1848), Eliza (1791-after 1859), and Mary Ann (1796-1828).

The estate inventory for the subject's wife, Margaret Bowdoin Prentis, includes a page headed "Memorandum of Cloth[e]s put into the Trunk for my dear Eliza & Mary Ann Prentis Sep[tembe]r 24 1801." Following this, apparently to be grouped with the items put aside for Eliza and Mary Ann, is "1 Box containing J P.s Miniature Picture . . . ."

A 30 April 1810 letter from Eliza to her sister-in-law, Susan Caroline Prentis (wife of Joseph Prentis, Jr.), further states: "Should I never see that [temporarily missing] Trunk again, I shall really be miserable, and scarcely [sic] ever forgive myself for it for it contains my beloved Fathers Miniature, which is more valuable to me, than any thing I possess."
InscribedAn inscription on the back of the gold case (judged, stylistically, to be late nineteenth century reads: "JUDGE JOSEPH PRENTIS/1754-1803". [Note: The inscribed death date is in error; the correct year of the subject's death was 1809].
ProvenanceThe early part of the family descent is undocumented. The miniature may once have been owned by Eliza or Mary Ann Prentis (both, daughters of the subject), but ultimately it appears to have come into the possession of the subject's son, Joseph Prentis, Jr. (1783-1851), and thence to:
his daughter, Mrs. Robert Henning Webb (Margaret Susan Prentis)(1810-1882); to her son, Joseph Prentis Webb (1843-1892); to his son, Robert Henning Webb II (1882-?); to his widow, Mrs. Robert Henning Webb II (Blanche Farrington Miller)(1889-?); to her son, Joseph Prentis Webb II (1913-1992?); to his children, who were CWF's vendors.