Images(2)

Portrait of Charlotte Polyxenia Farley Holding a Posey

Dateca. 1848

Attributed to Thomas Poindexter

OriginAmerica, Mississippi, Jefferson County

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 24 3/4 × 19 1/2in. (62.9 × 49.5cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund

Object number2020-40,A&B

DescriptionPortrait of a young girl in a bright orange dress holding a small bouquet of flowers. Her blond hair is parted off center and falls just above her shoulders. The background is a grey brown.

The frame is a period gilt frame.Label TextThese three portraits of the Farley sisters were commissioned by their father, George Porterfield Farley, and his wife, Charlotte, in the late 1840s. The sisters, Charlotte, Chestina and Georgia were descendants of the earliest settlers to Jefferson County, Mississippi and lived in an area known as Shankstown (now Lorman) where their father was a planter. The Farley family were Catholics, and the daughters were all educated in Bardstown, Kentucky at Nazareth Academy; a boarding school operated by the Sisters of Charity.

The Farley sisters were painted by Thomas Poindexter not long after the artist arrived in Mississippi. Originally from Kentucky, Poindexter also spent time in Tennessee before moving his family to Hind Co., Mississippi prior to 1850. In all three states, Poindexter advertised in local newspapers gain commissions and this is likely how George Farley became aware of the artist.
ProvenanceThis portrait and the two companion portraits of her sisters were commissioned by their father, George Porterfied Farley, and his wife in the late 1840s. They all descended together, first to their daughter, Charlotte Polyxenia Farley; then to her daughter, Mary Lorman Hays; to her son, Laforest Alyoysius Dunn; to his wife, Ethel George Dunn; to her niece, Melody George Logan who sold the portraits to Peter Patout in 2014, who then sold the portrait to Colonial Williamsburg.