Portrait of Elizabeth Kay Coleman (Mrs. Thomas Coleman)(?-?)

Date1811

MediumWatercolor and gouache on laid paper

DimensionsOther (primary support [very irreg.]): 13 7/16 x 12in. (34.1 x 30.5cm) Other (pictorial composition): 13 x 11in. (33 x 27.9cm) Other (as currently matted): 14 7/8 x 12 1/2in. (37.8 x 31.8cm) Other (outer margins, at greatest): 1/2in. (1.3cm)

Credit LinePartial gift of Lindsay C. and Leslie B. Grigsby

Object number2004.300.2

DescriptionA profile bust-length portrait of a woman facing right. She wears a blue-green dress with a sheer white lace collared "smock" over it. She wears a sheer white embroidered cap on her head, held in place by ribbons tied at the nape of her neck; a bow appears at the top of her head. She wears a black and simulated gold monogramed and dated brooch, pinned at the neckline. Her face is tinted pink. She has blonde hair. Her eyes are pale yellow (possibly the fading of an original blue or hazel?) The background is painted a solid medium blue. A 3/4-inch border of unpainted paper is left around the image. Small holes and a folded edge suggest that the primary support was once mounted on stretchers or, more likely, on a solid support such as a wooden panel.

Artist unidentified.

The original frames for this portrait and its companion (see 2004-85) were lost prior to CW's acquisitioning; former owner Lindsay Grigsby added the present frames sometime during 1991-2004.
Label TextThomas Coleman of Orange County married Elizabeth Kay of Caroline County (both, in Virginia) October 27, 1796, and subsequently the couple had twelve children. The brooch Mrs. Coleman wears is inscribed "TC/1811," the meaning of which is uncertain (though the year may be the date her portrait and her husband's were executed).
Although the artist of the Coleman portraits has not been identified by name, other watercolor profiles of Virginia subjects have been attributed to the same hand.
InscribedThe brooch worn by the subject bears the initials "TC" in a monogram, written above the date "1811".
MarkingsThe primary support bears a watermark fleur-de-lis with an indecipherable configuration below it.
ProvenanceThe portrait and its companion, 2004.300.2, descended in the family of the sitters to Mary Dickenson of Culpeper, Virginia, who left them to her great-great nephew, Lindsay Grigsby, who was CWF's source.