Mrs. Nathaniel Cunningham
Artist: John Smibert (American, 1688-1751)
Date: 1730
Dimensions:
Frame: 56 1/2 × 47 × 2 1/2 in. (143.5 × 119.4 × 6.4 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: 1948.19
Label Text:John Smibert worked in colonial Boston, but was trained in London, giving him the knowledge and skill to portray his subjects in keeping with English styles. Ann Boucher Cunningham’s pose, hairstyle, and dress recall portraits of English noblewomen. In fact the pose and background of this portrait were derived from a mezzotint after a portrait of Margaret Jones, Countess of Ranelagh, by British artist Sir Godfrey Kneller (see illustration). For a busy portrait artist like Smibert, it was not uncommon to have “pre-painted” the body with a pose and costume based on a print sent from England. When a client commissioned a portrait, they could choose the pose and costume they preferred and perhaps suggest some details. The artist then painted the client’s head, creating a likeness in the latest British fashion.
Ann Boucher married Captain Nathaniel Cunningham (died 1748) in 1722. Cunningham was one of the wealthiest merchants in Boston, making much of his fortune as a middleman in the slave trade, purchasing enslaved Africans from Barbados in order to sell them in Boston.
Ann Boucher married Captain Nathaniel Cunningham (died 1748) in 1722. Cunningham was one of the wealthiest merchants in Boston, making much of his fortune as a middleman in the slave trade, purchasing enslaved Africans from Barbados in order to sell them in Boston.
On view
In Collection(s)