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2010.200.1, Portrait
Portrait of Marion Margaret Morson Payne (later, Mrs. Henry Martin Clarkson)(1802-1842)
2010.200.1, Portrait

Portrait of Marion Margaret Morson Payne (later, Mrs. Henry Martin Clarkson)(1802-1842)

Date1807
Artist William Joseph Aldridge (1751 - after 1813)
OriginAmerica, Virginia, Fauquier County
MediumPastel on heavy composite (layered) wove paper
DimensionsPrimary Support: 22 1/2 x 18 1/16in. (57.2 x 45.9cm) and Framed: 24 3/4 x 20 1/2in.
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund
Object number2010.200.1
DescriptionA portrait of a small girl shown at nearly 3/4-length, standing, and holding an open book in her proper right hand. Her proper left arm falls slack by her side and is not shown. She wears a high-waisted, low-necked, short-sleeved, white dress with a blue sash. Her dark brown hair is cut to about shoulder length in back but short in front of her ears, with wispy bangs around her face. She has pale blue eyes. Behind her is a simple landscape setting including a stream running diagonally through the composition. Shrubbery appears immediately behind the outline of the child, its darkness creating a foil for her pale body, face, and dress.

The 1 1/2-inch black-and gold-painted Hogarth-style frame is believed original, including the shaped hanging ring at center top. It has an unusual stepped rabbet (which also distinguishes the frame for 1978-141, another Aldridge pastel). The wood has been estimated by eye (CWF furniture conservator Chris Swan 8/30/2010) as a softwood such as Scots pine or spruce.
Label TextMarion Margaret Morson Payne was five years old when she posed for the pastelist. William Joseph Aldridge placed her head very close to the top of the picture, as was his custom, but his other known subjects --- all adults --- were rendered bust- or half-length. Because of Marion's small size, he was able to show more of her body. Other characteristics of Aldridge's style include widely-opened eyes and mouths defined by thin lines separating linearly-drawn lips.

The young girl tilts her book forward as if to display its contents, but only "mock" writing appears on the pages. Aldridge's tightly-formatted portraits of adults usually lack settings and props, but here, the book and simple landscape provide an engaging context for the little girl, and the dense, dark shrubbery forms an effective backdrop for her pale form.

Marion was born [2 or 15] January 1802 at "Clifton," the Fauquier County, Virginia, home of her parents, Captain William Payne (1755-1837) and his second wife, Marion Andrew Morson (1765-1840), who was the widow of Andrew Love. The portrait subject married Dr. Henry Martin Clarkson (1796-1862) on 15 December 1819 at "Clifton. Following their marriage, the Clarksons lived at "Bellevue," an estate less than a mile from "Clifton" that had been acquired by Captain Payne for his daughter and son-in-law. The young couple's eleven children were all born at "Bellevue." Marion's mother died there 21 November 1840. In the fall of 1841, the Clarksons moved to Columbia, Missouri, where he practiced medicine. Marion Payne Clarkson died 5 December 1842 and was buried in the Clarkson lot in the Columbia City Cemetery.

Marion's father, familiarly known as "Captain Pepper" from Revolutionary War days, was born at "Green Hill" in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and married, first, on 11 April 1779, in Falmouth, Virginia, Susannah Richards (1762-1795). On 19 April 1801 he married, second, Marion Andrew Morson Love. He commanded the Falmouth Blues during the Revolutionary War. In 1780, he moved from Falmouth to what was then King George (and is now Westmoreland) County, where he served as captain of a militia company under Col. Richard Henry Lee. He was present at the surrender at Yorktown, following which his company was dismissed.

Captain Payne fathered three children by his first wife (Frances Susannah Stone [1780-1867], Daniel [1784-1860], and John Richards [d. young]) and three by his second (Marion, the subject of this portrait), Arthur A. M. [1804-1868], and Eliza Ann [1806-1876]).



InscribedA paper label glued to the wooden backboard reads, in dark brown ink in handwritten script: "Marion Margaret Morson Payne/This likeness was taken in the year 1807 --/At the age of 5 years/By William J. Aldri[ch?]e --" and, in the lower left corner of the label in smaller script: "___ [of?] ____ 1854". Losses render the two words in the last line indecipherable.
Newspaper appears to have been pasted over the entire back of the picture at a early date, possibly at the time the picture was created; scattered remnants are now revealed beneath the brown paper dust cover that, at some point, was glued over the entire back of the picture, save for a rectangle cut out to reveal the above-transcribed label. A still later (modern) paper dust cover was pasted over the entire back of the picture, obscuring the handwritten label.


ProvenanceFrom the subject's father, Captain William Payne (1755-1837) to his wife, Marian Andrew Morson Payne (1765-1840); to her stepdaughter, Frances Susannah Payne (1780-1867); thence by descent to the present owner.