Portrait of a Woman of the Bell Family

Date1808

Attributed to William Joseph Aldridge 1751 - after 1813

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Fauquier County

MediumPastel on heavy wove composite (layered) paper

DimensionsPrimary support: 23 3/16 x 18 7/16in. (58.9 x 46.8cm) and Framed: 24 7/8 x 20 1/2in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1978-141,A

DescriptionA bust-length portrait of an older woman turned a quarter to the viewer's right, with a raised book in front of her (but her hands not visible). She wears a gray dress with white fichu and a white bonnet trimmed with blue ribbon. Her eyes are pale blue.Label TextThis pastel portrait was acquired with two others of members of the Bell family of Faquier County, Virginia, but the sitters' exact identities and their relationships with one another have not yet been defined. William Joseph Aldridge signed the other two Bell portraits; this one is attributed to the artist based on its stylistic similarity to the others and to additional signed examples of the artist's work. Earmarks of Aldridge's style include elongated heads, long, thin-bridged noses, almond-shaped eyes with the pupils placed abnormally high in the irises, and full lips separated by a long line and set off by heavy shadow below the lower lip.Inscription(s)No inscriptions have been noted on the white pine backboard, which consists of two separate pieces. (They appear to have been separate originally, rather than one piece that subsequently broke into two).

Provenance1978-141, -140, and -139 were all "found in a house being razed," according to an intermediary, Mrs. William J. Lloyd of Arlington, Va., who wrote on behalf of Georgia Luthy, the seller; the location of the house was never given and remains unknown.