Portrait, Woman Reading Book

DateCa. 1840

Artist/Maker Susannah Fauntleroy Quarles Nicholson

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOH(STRETCHER):32 3/16"X 25 3/16". Framed: 39 3/16" x 33 5/16".

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1991-121,A

DescriptionPainting, Woman Reading Book. Half-length portrait of a woman seated on a wooden settee. Wears black dress which crisscrosses at waistline, covered by loose, open outer garment. Triangular white, lace-trimmed collar hangs in point at front, white lace cap with frills along sides of face ties under chin. Subject holds large, open book in lap. Wrinkled face and hand would indicate old age, but hair un-streaked dark brown. Delineation of upper lip unusual in clear, linear definition.Label TextThis is the only portrait in this exhibition painted by a woman. Susannah Nicholson created this likeness of her brother Henry’s mother-in-law, Elizabeth McDaniel, during an extended visit to Virginia in the late 1830s. She also painted several other members of Henry’s family about that time.

Susannah’s life was anything but stationary. Born in Virginia, she eventually resided in Maryland, Delaware, and Ohio, and her marriage to Jacob Cannon Nicholson provided no stability. In 1831, Jacob publically refused to extend credit to his wife and warned merchants not to do so. On several occasions the couple separated, likely causing disruption to her efforts and accounting for the small number of her surviving works. The only reference to either of their livelihoods is an 1839 advertisement in the Lynchburg Virginian newspaper, in which Susannah and Jacob jointly announced their preparation to “Paint miniatures and Portraits, for any who may desire it.”
Mark(s)Large, scrawling marks in lower right corner which may be signature are entirely illegible.ProvenancePortrait was acquired by Halladay & Thomas in or before 1941 from Mrs. Virginia Lee N. Wood, an antiques dealer at Bogert Mill Road and Harrington Avenue, Harrington Park, New Jersey; the portrait descended on the father's side of Mrs. Wood's family and according to her letter of February 25, 1941, was the work of her great-grandmother from Essex County, Virginia.