Portrait of James McSherry Coale
DateMarch 27, 1811
MediumPastel on paper over canvas
DimensionsFramed (exterior edges): 26 × 20 3/8 in
Sight (of frame): 23 3/8 × 17 5/8 in (59.37 × 44.77cm)
Sight (of frame): 23 3/8 × 17 5/8 in (59.37 × 44.77cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund
Object number2025-127
DescriptionPortrait of a young boy in a dark grey outfit with white trim around the collar. He is holding a goldfinch in his proper right hand while petting a small white and brown dog with his left. He is depicted in front of a low wall with a landscape of trees behind.Label TextJames McSherry Coale was born January 19, 1805, to Richard Coale Sr. and his wife, Catharine McSherry Coale of Libertytown, Maryland. James was only 6 years old when he sat for his portrait in 1811. James would grow up to become a prominent attorney in Frederick County, Maryland and a Brigadier General in the 9th Brigade of the Maryland militia before the Civil War. He was also the president of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1852 to 1862. As a state representative he is credited with defeating a plan that would have divided the eastern shore of Maryland into Delaware. Frederick Kemmelmeyer was a German born artist who worked throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia from around 1788 until 1816. Of the 11 works, in both pastel and oil, that survive by the Kemmelmeyer only 6 are signed. The portrait of James Coale, is one such piece and is signed on the reverse, "Painted by F. Kemmelmeyer, limner, 27th March 1811."Inscription(s)Signed on verso in chalk: "Painted by F. Kemmelmeyer, limner, 27th March 1811"ProvenanceBy descent in the Coale-Sappington family, (Libertytown, MD); 2021 (Alex Cooper Auctioneers, Baltimore, MD, January 30, 2021, lot 1068); 2021, Kelly Kinzle (New Oxford, PA); by December 2025, David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles (Woodbury, CT); 2025, purchased by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).
ca. 1820