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John Wollaston
Susannah Marshall, 1749-52
John Wollaston was one of the first English painters to introduce to the colonies a taste for rococo portraiture, with its elegant poses, rich colors, and mericulously rendered materials -- all influenced by British engravings. Born in London, he produced countless portraits while living and working in the Mid-Atlantic and South between 1749 and 1767.
Wollaston first arrived in New York, where he found eager patrons among the city's elite. Susannah Marshall was one such sitter. The eldest unmarried daughter of a mercantile family, she helped manage their import-export business with the West Indies. Along with her sisters (also painted by Wollaston), Marshall lived through the British occupation of New York, later dying at age ninety. She is buried in the historic Trinity Churchyard in Lower Manhattan. The museum acquired this portrait during the bicentennial year of 1976, when interest in early American art was on the rise. |