Portrait of Margaret Chew Bordley

Maker John Wollaston the Younger (British, active 1736 - 1775)

Additional Title(s)

Margaret Chew Bordley

Collections

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Dateca. 1752

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 30 1/2 × 24 1/2 in. (77.5 × 62.2 cm.) frame: 35 3/4 × 31 1/8 × 3 3/8 in. (90.8 × 79.1 × 8.6 cm.)

DescriptionPortrait of Margaret Chew Bordley (1735-1773) in a green-gold dress with blue bows

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gail-Oxford Collection

Status

On view

Label TextMargaret Bordley (1735 – 1773), a member of a prominent Philadelphia family, married John Beale Bordley (1727 – 1804), an attorney and Maryland planter, in 1750. Shortly after their marriage, the couple moved to Annapolis and subsequently to the rural community of Joppa, Maryland. In Joppa, and later at a plantation on Wye Island off Maryland’s eastern shore, Bordley conducted agricultural experiments, including crop rotation, that revolutionized planting practices in this country. Margaret raised their four children and died in 1773.

English artist John Wollaston moved to New York about 1749 and painted portraits of the city’s most notable leaders through 1752. He later traveled to Philadelphia, Annapolis, Virginia, and Charleston, where he painted over two hundred portraits before returning to England in 1767. Here, the heavy-lidded, almond-shaped eyes and interest in the play of light on satin, silk, and lace are characteristic of Wollaston’s work of the period. This quarter-length portrait was most likely painted in Annapolis.

Object number2016.11.7