Portrait of an Enslaved Girl

Date1830

Artist Mary Anna Randolph Custis (later, Mrs. Robert E. Lee)(1807-1873)

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Arlington County

MediumWatercolor, pencil, and ink on wove paper

DimensionsPrimary Support: 6 x 4 1/8in. (15.2 x 10.5cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2007-34,1

DescriptionA full-length portrait of a young African-American girl, aged ten or so. She stands full-front and gazes calmly at the viewer. With her proper left hand, balances a wooden tub on the top of her head. Her proper right arm is relaxed and hangs by her side. She She wears a long, short-sleeved, reddish-orange colored checked dress that is mostly covered by a full-length white apron. Her feet are bare. She stands on an area of cleared ground, with mixed vegetation shown behind her. In the far distance, part of a snake fence stretches across the background, with a range of blue mountains beyond it, all beneath a white-clouded, blue sky.

Upon receipt in March 2007, the watercolor was spot-glued, back to back, to a second image --- one that does not appear to be directly related to the enslaved girl --- the two attached pictures having been discovered thus within the overall collection of J. E. B. Stuart papers through which they descended. See "Provenance." The Alexander Gallery ("Vendor") framed the back-to-back artworks together, incorporating front and back window mats to reveal both images. Upon acquisition by CWF, the two pictures were detached from one another and the modern frame discarded.
Label TextDepictions of enslaved African-Americans are rare, particularly images that lack the distortions of caricature and stereotyping. Colonial Williamsburg's portrait is unusually empathetic and closely-observed. Mary Anna Randolph Custis (1807-1873) was the only surviving child of George Washington Parke Custis (1781-1857) and Mary Lee Fitzhugh (1788-1853) of Arlington House in Northern Virginia. Likely the subject was one of the Custis family's slaves, though her name is unknown. (The word "Topsy" was written on her apron later, by an unidentified hand).

A minimal setting and fine, skillfully executed details focus attention sharply on the subject, whose quiet dignity dominates the image. The child's stance is attentive, yet relaxed and easy, and she regards the viewer with a calm, straightforward gaze. Although small, female, young, and vulnerable, every detail of the girl's attitude conveys naturalness, self-possession, and assurance.

Mary Custis harbored a lifelong concern for the education of the enslaved, emulating the work of her mother in teaching those at Arlington House to read and write. Her goal was to prepare them for eventual emancipation. Her father's will directed that the enslaved people they owned be freed within five years of his death if his estate were solvent. He died in 1857 leaving considerable debt, however, and it was only on December 29, 1862, that executor Robert E. Lee formalized their freedom.

George Washington Parke Custis built Arlington House in 1802-1818, establishing it as both a family home and a memorial to George Washington, the step-grandfather who had raised him at Mount Vernon and whom he had grown to reverence. Inherited estates afforded Custis a comfortable living and allowed him the luxury of pursuing personal interests in painting, playwriting, music, and oratory. He must have stimulated his daughter's artistic tendencies, and he may have taught her the skills revealed in her watercolor.

The history of the enslaved girl's portrait developed additional interesting aspects after the artist's June 30, 1831, marriage to her distant cousin, Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), ultimately commander of the Army of the Confederacy. In 1852, the Lees moved to West Point, where he assumed duties as Superintendent of the national military academy. It seems to have been there that the watercolor was given to J. E. B. Stuart, then an academy cadet and later one of the Confederacy's best-known generals. The portrait survived amid an assemblage of autographs, sketches, and other memorabilia amassed by Stuart during his school years.

InscribedIn black ink in script in the lower left corner of the recto is "M A R Custis/1830".
In graphite in upright script in another hand across the lower edge of the subject's apron is: "Topsy". The latter inscription is not thought to be the artist's, and its origin and meaning are unknown.
MarkingsNo watermark found.
Provenance2007-34, 1 and 2007-34, 2 were part of a larger collection of ephemera said to have been amassed by James Ewell Brown ("Jeb") Stuart (1833-1864) while a student at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, New York (class of 1854). It is speculated that 2007-34, 1 was given to Stuart by the artist at some point during the period 1852-1855 when her husband, Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), served as superintendent at West Point.
The Stuart collection of ephemera was acquired by the Alexander Gallery, New York, NY, at an unknown date. An inventory of the collection, made by the Alexander Gallery, is in the object file.
At the time of the Alexander Gallery's acquisition of the collection, 2007-34, 1 and 2007-34, 2 were found to be glued back-to-back, even though no direct, original relationship between the two was --- or is --- known. The Alexander Gallery framed and sold to CWF the two artworks as it had found them, using double glazing and front and back window mats to reveal both images. Upon acquisition by CWF, the two pictures were detached from one another and the modern frame supplied by the Alexander Gallery was discarded.

Exhibition(s)

A Rich and Varied Culture