Painting (Portrait)

Description

Wollaston is often credited with introducing the American colonies to a style of English portraiture featuring finely rendered fabrics and informal poses when he arrived from London in 1749. In 1753-54, Wollaston painted more than thirty portraits of wealthy Annapolis families, including Edward and his wife Henrietta Maria Chew (2024.0014.005.002). Celebrated in his time, Wollaston was an important influence on the succeeding generation of American portrait painters, including Benjamin West and John Hesselius. By 1766, Edward, his wife, and both daughters died, leaving these portraits to Rebecca Dorsey Ridgely, his niece. Rebecca and her husband hung them in Hampton Mansion, a plantation that was then the largest private residence in the colonies, where they remained for nearly 150 years.