Sarah Kilby
Artist: John Greenwood (American, 1729-1792)
Date: about 1752
Dimensions:
Frame: 57 7/8 × 50 × 4 in. (147 × 127 × 10.2 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott
Object number: 1951.296
Label Text:The only surviving daughter of wealthy Boston merchant Christopher Kilby and his wife Sarah Clark, Sarah Kilby (1736–1779) received the best education available in the New England colonies. She married Nathaniel Cunningham, Jr. (1725–1756) in 1753; this portrait may have been painted on the occasion of her betrothal. Her husband was the son of Captain Nathaniel Cunningham, whose wife—Sarah’s mother-in-law—is depicted in a portrait by John Smibert on the far side of the doorway of this gallery. Cunningham, Jr. died less than three years after their wedding, leaving Sarah a widow with two infant daughters. In 1757 she married Captain Gilbert McAdam, a Scotsman from Ayrshire who fought in the French and Indian War (1754–63). The McAdams later moved to Scotland.
Boston artist John Greenwood made changes in developing the composition: the shadow of a column base is visible in the left corner of the landscape vista, and Sarah Kilby’s left hand probably at first rested in her lap—an outline of a hand can be seen below the folds of the skirt.
Boston artist John Greenwood made changes in developing the composition: the shadow of a column base is visible in the left corner of the landscape vista, and Sarah Kilby’s left hand probably at first rested in her lap—an outline of a hand can be seen below the folds of the skirt.
On view
In Collection(s)