Betty Washington Lewis
John Wollaston, Jr., painted this portrait of George Washington’s sister, Betty Washington Lewis, and a companion portrait of her husband, Colonel Fielding Lewis, during his years traveling and working in Virginia, between 1754 and 1758. Betty Lewis was a capable plantation manager, mother, and helpmeet who raised eleven children and, together with Fielding, made their home in Fredericksburg, known today as Kenmore, a center of local hospitality. As was the custom in England and the American Colonies in this period, Wollaston based Betty’s pose, clothing, accouterments and background setting on earlier paintings, as conveyed through one or more print sources, that he likely brought with him from England. Although an exact print source has yet to be identified, one can see how Wollaston painted several other female sitters in this pose, and a particularly noteworthy comparison to Betty is his portrait of Martha Parke Custis from 1757, as both Washington’s sister and future wife appear in an identical blue dress and have matching facial features and hair styles.
Frame:
Appearance: Black painted and parcel-gilt Dutch-style frame with carved elements; carved are gilded waterleaves along the sight and outside edges; central molding profile is composed of a large cavetto on the inside and an ovolo on the outside.
Construction: Four lengths of molding mitered, glued, and joined by perpendicular splines in the four corners; original hanging hardware, four hand-forged iron plates with hand-filed eyes, set into channel on upper and lower rails; iron plates contain three holes each; one hand-made screw in each plate; modern D-rings screwed to upper half of side stiles.
Published ReferencesWeekley, Carolyn J. Painters and Paintings in the Early American South. Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in association with Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2013.
Weekley, Carolyn J. “John Wollaston, Portrait Painter: His Career in Virginia, 1754-1758.” M.A. Thesis, University of Delaware, 1976 (illustrated page 124).
Wilmerding, John. American Art. New York: Penguin Books, 1976 (discussed page 34; illustration number 30).
Craven, Wayne. “John Wollaston, His Career in England and New York City.” The American Art Journal, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Nov. 1975): 19-31.
Duke, Jane Taylor. Kenmore and the Lewises. Forward by Senator Harry Flood Byrd. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1949 (illustrated opposite page 231).
Smoot, Betty Carter. Days in an Old Town. Alexandria, VA, 1934 (discussed page 58, and illustrated; however images do no appear to be the original portraits but copies. Note, e.g. the upper surrounds in Fielding’s portrait and the rendering of the fabric in Betty’s).
The Valuable and Extraordinary Collection of the Effects of General George Washington and of his Executor and Nephew, Lawrence Lewis, and Grand-Nephew Lorenzo Lewis, by Stan V. Henkels/Thomas Birch’s Sons, Auctioneers, Philadelphia (Sale December 10, 11, and 12, 1890), lot number 657.
“George Washington and Mount Vernon,” Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society, Vol. IV, Brooklyn, NY, 1889. (discussed pages li-liii).
