Portrait of Nicholas Cresswell

Datec. 1780

MediumOil on canvas; Frame: wood, gold leaf

Dimensions17 1/2" X 13 3/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1961-178

DescriptionPortrait painting: bust-length portrait of a man, head and torso turned 3/4 sinister, brown eyes to viewer. Brown hair cut short on top, brushed down to forehead, with moderate sideburns and curls over ears; second curl or que visible behind head. pink conplexion, very red lips. Plain tan/khaki waistcoat and coat with large same fabric buttons. White shirt and stock. Plain brown background.Label TextBorn in Derbyshire, England, Nicholas Cresswell came to America at the age of 24. Cresswell visited Barbados, Maryland, Virginia, western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Philadelphia and New York before returning to England just three years later in 1777 due to the onset of the Revolutionary War. This portrait, as well as five journals which record his time in America, descended through the family of Cresswell’s niece, Mrs. Samuel Thornley before they were purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg almost two-hundred years later.

The portrait’s artist is unidentified, but it was probably painted in England after Cresswell’s return and may have been done around the time of his 1781 marriage to Mary Mellor of Idridgehay.
ProvenanceDate unknown, by descent from the sitter to his niece, Ann Thornley (Liverpool, England); Date unknown, by decent to her son, Frederick Thornley; Date unknown, to his son, Samuel Thornley (Helsby, England) whose wife was Colonial Williamsburg's source; 1961, purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Virginia)