Portrait of William H. Cabell (1772-1853)

Date1807

Artist/Maker Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Memin (1770-1852)

MediumMezzotint and line engraving on wove paper

DimensionsOverall: 4 × 4in. (10.2 × 10.2cm)

Credit LineGift of Cynthia K. Barlowe and Raymond D. Kimbrough, Jr.

Object number1994-39

Label TextThis engraving depicts William H. Cabell (1772-1853), a lawyer and the Governor of Virginia from 1805 and 1808. As Governor, Cabell played a significant role in the suppression of Aaron Burr’s attempted organized rebellion in the trans-Appalachian West. In 1807, Cabell called up Virginia militiamen to defeat the rebellion and then oversaw Burr’s transfer to Richmond for his treason trial. Burr faced treason charges for his role in an alleged conspiracy to create a separate empire of states and territories along the Mississippi River. During the trial, Richmond filled with witnesses, Burr supporters, and trial spectators. This influx of people created a strong client base for French artist and engraver Charles Balthazar Julein Fevret de Saint-Memin (1700-1852), who arrived in the city in 1807. Saint-Memin’s profile portraiture benefited significantly from the trial, with the artist making more than 120 portraits during his short time in the city. William H. Cabell and his second wife, Agnes Sarah Belle Gamble (1783-1863), both sat for Saint-Memin.

Saint-Memin was a French émigré and former military officer who fled France during the French Revolution. The Saint-Memin family planned to travel to their plantation on Saint-Domingue but abandoned that plan when the Haitian Revolution began. Ending up in British North America, Saint-Memin was a prolific artist traveling up and down the East Coast, engraving more than 800 portraits. He created his portraits with a physiognotrace, a mechanical drawing instrument that artists used to accurately draw portraits. Sitters could purchase the life-size drawings that the physiognotrace produced as well as small engravings of the duplicated portrait. Saint-Memin also made custom frames for many of his clients’ portraits. Most of the frames were gilded and the glass decorated with black paint and gold leaf. With the revival of neoclassicism during the Federal period, Americans increasingly sought out portraiture. Portraiture was viewed as an honorific style that alluded to the Roman Republic and the virtue of its leaders. In 1814, Saint-Memin returned to France permanently with his family after the overthrow of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. Upon leaving, he destroyed his physiognotrace and ended his career as an artist. Later, in 1817, Saint-Memin became the director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Dijon, France.

Clients of Saint-Memin frequently purchased a dozen engravings of their portrait and sent them to family and friends. Cabell’s engraving descended in the Tucker family, suggesting that Cabell sent the engraving to St. George Tucker. It is unclear how exactly the likeness of Cabell made its way into the Tucker family, but the two men and their families had many connections. Cabell’s sister-in-law, Mary Carter Cabell (1788-1863), was the stepdaughter of St. George Tucker. While visiting the home of his stepdaughter and her husband, Joseph Carrington Cabell, in 1827, Tucker died unexpectedly from a stroke. As a professor of law at the College of William & Mary, Tucker taught Cabell and advocated for the college to issue its first Bachelor of Laws degree. In 1793, Cabell would be the first student in the United States to receive that degree. The two corresponded about legal and financial matters.
ProvenanceProbably 1808 to 1827, St. George Tucker (1752-1827); ?-1994, descended through the family to Cynthia K. Barlow (Saluda, VA) and Raymond D. Kimbrough, Jr. (Atlanta, GA); 1994-present, given to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).