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. His training as a drapery painter is especially evident in his handling of the lustrous silk dress in this painting. Celebrated in his time, Wollaston was an important influence on the succeeding generation of American portrait painters, including Benjamin West and John Hesselius. Henrietta Maria was a member of a prominent Maryland Puritan family and a cousin of the Lloyd family, owners of Wye Plantation, several of whose portraits also hang at Winterthur (1962.0590 and 1964.0124).