Portrait of William Tazewell Nivison (1789-1821)

Date1811-1812 (Frame ca. 1885)

Attributed to Cephas Thompson (1775-1856)

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 30" x 24 7/8" and Framed: 36 5/8" x 31"

Credit LineGift of Deborah L. Robertson, Diane L. Liles, David F. Waller and Daniel P. Waller

Object number2003-78,A&C

DescriptionA half-length portrait of a seated man turned a quarter to the left, his head turned slightly toward the viewer. He wears a black coat, white shirt, and white neckcloth and has dark brown hair brushed forward at the sides and up on top and very pale blue eyes. His near (proper left) arm rests on the crest of a yellow-painted, spindle-back, fancy side chair having rear posts carved in the form of fasces. The background is a streaked gray-mauve, somewhat lighter around the sitter's head.

The 4 1/4-inch frame is an 1880s replacement of bird's-eye maple that bears, on its flat surface, shallow, linear, Eastlake-style carving.

Label TextLike many portraitists, Cephas Thompson frequently posed adult male sitters seated sideways in a chair with one arm casually draped over its crest. The pose gained great favor in the eighteenth century, when initially it signaled the subject's ease with himself and his surroundings. The turn of the body and play of the arms also added compositional interest. By the early nineteenth century, the pose had become a widespread standard for men's half-length likenesses.

In this painting, the pale color of the subject's eyes attracts attention, and the widely opened far eye imparts a slightly startled look. His chair incorporates the distinctly neoclassical element of rear stiles carved to resemble fasces (bundles of rods that, in ancient Roman times, were bound about axes and carried before magistrates as symbols of authority).

The frame dates from the 1880s, as is evidenced by the style of linear carving embellishing its flat surface. (At least three Thompson portraits of other family members were placed in the same style frame; it is not known why, exactly when, or by whom this was done, but presumably the paintings were intended to hang en suite.)

William Nivison was a son of Sarah Stratton and Col. John Nivison of Norfolk, Virginia. He practiced law there and died unmarried. His parents, three sisters, and one brother-in-law were all painted by Thompson about the same time.

InscribedCrudely incised, upside down, in the top frame member, is: "H C [or H O] Harrison". Crudely painted on the upper strainer in black in another hand is: "a [s?] [J?] Waller".
ProvenanceSome aspects of the portrait's history are unclear. Per Grigsby ("Bibliogrphy"), p. 95, a portrait of William Nivison, presumably this one, once hung, along with seven other family portraits, in the parlor of the Norfolk, Virginia, home of Littleton Waller Tazewell (whose wife was the subject's sister).

2003-78 shares at least a partial history of ownership with 2003-79. Based on discussions with former owner Roy Waller, it is believed that the two portraits of brothers-in-law descended to a grandson of the subject of 2003-79, William Nivison Waller, Sr. (1858-1924); thence, to his son, William Nivison Waller, Jr. (1888-1956); thence, to his wife, Mrs. William Nivison Waller, Jr. (Edith Hyslop)(d. 1986); thence to her nephew, Roy Franklin Waller (b. 1932); thence to his four children, Mrs. Ronald Bracey Robertson (Deborah Lynn Waller)(b. 1954); Mrs. Steven Procter Liles (Diane Leslie Waller)(b. 1958); David Franklin Waller (b. 1962); and Daniel Page Waller (b. 1965), these last four being CWF's donors.