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

Friday, March 29, 2019

Charles Calvert


And His Slave.


This 1761 Portrait of 5-year-old Charles Calvert and his enslaved companion by John Hesselius hangs in the Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland.


The Frick photoarchive describes the painting this way.
The boy standing wears a rose-pink suit, an Alice-blue cloak…black hat with white plume, white stockings and black shoes. The colored boy wears buff clothing trimmed with black and be holds a dull red drum. Green and brown landscape, and blue sky with warm gray clouds.

...The puffiness in the boy's face shows the definite influence of Wollaston on John Hesselius. -- Frick Photoarchives
 The Museum label at the Baltimore Museum of art says:
A young Charles Calvert (1756-1773) stands proudly in a plumed hat and silk clothing with an as-yet unidentified enslaved child kneeling and looking upwards at him. The child holds a drum while Charles holds drumsticks in his right hand and, with his left, points toward a distant church, possibly the original structure of St Anne's in Annapolis. As the male heir, Charles received an expensive full-length portrait while his sisters, seen nearby, are portrayed in less costly half-length views. This work recalls a European portraiture convention that depicts powerful Europeans with Africans both free and enslaved portrayed in subservient poses.

The presence of the enslaved child reflects the reliance of the Maryland upper class on the domestic labor of enslaved individuals for help with everything from cooking and cleaning to caring for children and serving as their companions. -- Baltimore Museum of Art
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Frick  gives this genealogical biography of Charles Calvert:
 Charles Calvert (October 3, 1756 - January 30, 1774 (1777) was the son of Benedict Calvert, formerly called Benedict Swingate, (1724-1788) and Elizabeth Calvert (1730-1798). Benedict Calvert was a natural son of the 5th Lord Baltimore. According to Mrs William M.. Ellicott, of Baltimore, Charles Calvert, the subject of this portrait, died at the age of twenty-one while studying at Oxford. However, {other sources} state that be died at the age of 17, while at school at Eton, England.

Charles Calvert Æ 5
John Heʃselius Pinx Maryland
1761

This photo by Ira W. Martin in the Frick photoarchives shows the condition of the painting before  Hammond's 1926 restoration.


1 comment:

  1. Thank you! helpful information and images.

    ReplyDelete