"A portrait is a picture in which there is just a tiny little something not quite right about the mouth." -- John Singer Sargent

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Dorcas Spear Patterson



This c. 1786 portrait entitled "Mrs. William Patterson (Dorcas Spear) with Elizabeth Paterson", hangs in the Museum of the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore, Maryland.
"Little is known of Elizabeth's mother, Dorcas Spear, except that she was a member of a prominent Scottish family and, like her four sisters, was known for her beauty. Elizabeth's relationship with her mother stands in stark contrast to that with her father. Before thier death in 1814, Dorcas asked her husband to divide the money she received from her father equally among all of the childrern. Patterson refused, dividing the money equally among their sons and distributing nothing to Elizabeth."
Betsy Patterson

The Portrait Gallery includes an earlier portrait of Dorcas' husband William Patterson, also by Robert Edge Pine and a Gilbert Stuart Portrait of  Betsy Patterson Bonaparte.

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