Abigail Chesebrough (Mrs. Alexander Grant)

Oil on canvasJoseph Blackburn (English, active in British colonies in North America and Bermuda, 1752–64)/1754

Description

Dressed in imported luxurious fabrics and accessories, 20-year-old Abigail Chesebrough displays the material wealth of her family in Newport, Rhode Island, in this portrait by Joseph Blackburn. Her father, David Chesebrough, was a merchant and an enslaver, amassing his fortune through the triangular trade of people of color, molasses, and rum between Western Africa, the Caribbean, and New England. Blackburn shaped his career around the Atlantic trade networks developed in the 18th century. Probably trained in London, he traveled to Bermuda in 1752, securing commissions there. Two years later he was in Newport, where he painted Abigail as well as her stepmother. Blackburn moved on to paint portraits in Boston and Portsmouth before returning to England in 1764.

Provenance

David Chesebrough (1702/3–1782), Newport, RI, and Stonington, CT, 1754 [father of the sitter; this and the following according to letter from Dr. Charles M. Williams to Robert C. Vose, Jr., c. 1970; copy in curatorial object file]; by descent to his daughter, Abigail Grant (1734–by Dec. 1, 1807; born Abigail Chesebrough, also Mrs. Alexander Grant), Newport, RI, and London, 1782 [the sitter]; by descent to her grandson, Deacon David Chesebrough Smith (1782–1833), Stonington, CT, 1808; by descent to his daughter, Betsey Chesebrough Williams (1806–1860; born Betsey Chesebrough Smith, also Mrs. Charles Phelps Williams, Sr.), Stonington, CT, 1833; by descent to her daughter, Bessie S. Sherman (1832–1915; born Bessie S. Williams; also Mrs. Ezra Lewis Sherman), Chicago, 1860; given to the Stonington Historical Society, Stonington, CT, 1916 [letter from Dr. J. H. Weeks to Dr. C. Williams, Dec. 23, 1916; copy in curatorial object file]; consigned to Vose Galleries, Boston, by Oct., 1970 [<em>Antiques</em> Oct., 1970, 561]; Amelia Peabody (1890–1984), Boston, 1977; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1984.

Dimensions

127.6 × 101.5 cm (50 × 40 in.)

Source

The Art Institute of Chicago

Movement / Period

Romanticism & Neoclassicism

Accession No

102777

Official Citations

[The Art Institute of Chicago Official Record][Full Resolution Image]

Curatorial Affinity Stream

Continuing the Universe of Joseph Blackburn (English, active in British colonies in North America and Bermuda, 1752–64)

Romanticism & Neoclassicism • Newport • Harmonious Works & Contemporaries

Continuous Discovery