Edward Jaquelin Jr. (Primary Title)
Attributed to, Nehemiah Partridge, American, 1683 - 1730 (Artist)
In the early 18th century, affluent British Americans desired portraits of themselves and their loved ones, and a small but growing number of artists – both native born and émigré, trained and self-taught – supplied them. Among the portraitists were itinerant limners (traveling painters) who journeyed throughout the colonies in search of work.
Nehemiah Partridge, a self-taught painter who worked primarily in New England, is believed to have produced these lively portraits. Arriving in Virginia about 1722, he resided in the Jamestown households of Edward Jacquelin and William Brodnax, where he captured the images of more than a dozen family members. Like other provincial limners on both sides of the Atlantic, Partridge found inspiration for his costumes, poses, and backgrounds in British prints.
The period frame on the portrait at right has been “japanned” – painted black, like the striking high chest nearby. While there is no documentation that Partridge made the frame, which is of an age and style appropriate to the painting, he is known to have been a japanner of furniture. In colonial America, the distinction between “art” and “decoration” was fluid.
O’Leary, Elizabeth L., Sylvia Yount, Susan Jensen Rawles, and David Park Curry. American Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Charlottesville: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts with the University of Virginia Press, 2010. (Fig. 18, p. 18).
John McCoubrey, American Tradition in Painting (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000) p. 10, b&w ill. no. 7, n.p.
Robert Hughes, American Visions The Epic History of Art in America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and Toronto: Random House of Canada, Ltd., 1997) pp. 51-52, fig. 31 (color).
Wayne Craven, American Art History and Culture (Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark, 1994) p. 76, fig. 5.12.
Gerdts, William H. Art across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting, 1710-1920. New York, NY: Abbeville, 1990. (vol 2, fig. 2.4, p. 12)
Rasmussen, William M. S. "American Art to 1900." Magazine Antiques August 1990: 278-93. (pl. 1, p. 278)
Craven, Wayne. Colonial American Portraiture: The Economic, Religious, Social, Cultural, Philosophical, Scientific, and Aesthetic Foundations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. (fig. 93, p. 196)
Poesch, Jessie. The Art of the Old South: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, & the Products of Craftsmen, 1560-1860. New York: Knopf, 1983. (illus. p. 33)
Black, Mary. "The Case Reviewed." Arts in Virginia, Vol 10, No 1 (1969): 12-21. (fig. 5, p. 14)
Black, Mary. "The Case of the Red and Green Birds." Arts in Virginia, Vol 3, No 2 (1963): 2-9. (illus. pp. 2, 4)
Barker, Virgil. American Painting, History, and Interpretation. New York: Bonanza, 1960. (fig. 9, p. 67)
Thorne, Thomas. "Eighteenth-Century Painting in the South." Magazine Antiques March 1951: 204-06. (illus. p. 204)
Barker, Virgil. American Painting, History, and Interpretation. New York: Macmillan, 1950. (fig. 9, p. 67)
Some object records are not complete and do not reflect VMFA's full and current knowledge. VMFA makes routine updates as records are reviewed and enhanced.
