The Davis Children

Eliza Cheever Davis

John Derby Davis

This ca. 1795 painting of “The Davis Children (Eliza Cheever Davis and John Derby Davis)” by Edward Savage hangs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. The painting was for sale at Sotheby's between January 18th and 21st 2018 and was given to the Smithsonian by Ralph and Bobbi Terkowitz in 2019.

Sotheby's says this about the identity of the subjects of the painting.

The subject of the painting, Eliza Cheever Davis Shattuck (1790-1828) and John Derby Davis (1792-1809), was the subject of some confusion since the label of about 1900 indicated that the subject was “Eleanor Cheever and Her Brother.”  The painting descended in the Shattuck family of Boston and the Shattuck Geneology (Lemuel Shattuck Memorial of the descendants of William Shattuck, Boston 1855) lists only one Eleanor Cheever (1750-1825) - who married Caleb Davis of Boston in 1787.  Since the painting must date from the mid-1790s for both costume and the period when Savage was most available in Boston, Eleanor could not be the sitter, nor would she have a brother of the right age.  However, Eliza, who was sometimes known in the Shattuck family as Eleanor (there were many Elizabeths, Elizas and Eleanors in the Shattuck line), was of exactly the right age (born January 9, 1790) as was her brother John Derby Davis (born March 4, 1792) - and these two were the only children of the marriage of Eleanor Cheever and Caleb Davis.

Elizabeth Cheever Davis Shattuck

Sotheby's goes on to give this discussion of Eliza Cheever Davis along with her father and husband:

Eliza Cheever Davis came to her marriage in 1811 with considerable resources.  Her mother had inherited significant property and money from her uncle through her father, Captain William Downes Cheever, a mariner and Boston sugar refiner, and “man of large estate.” Eliza and John Derby's father, Caleb Davis (1738-1797), who had been born in Woodstock, CT, was a shipowner, one of the Sons of Liberty and a member of the Committee of Correspondence.  During the Revolutionary War, he was “agent of the State of Massachusetts.”  In 1780 he was Speaker of the first Massachusetts House of Representatives.  In 1788 he was a Boston member of the Constitutional Convention; and in 1789 was an Elector of George Washington.  He was 52 when Eliza was born and 54 when his son, John Derby was born.

George Cheyne Shattuck, Eliza's husband, was the son of Benjamin Shattuck (1743-1794), the first of a remarkable line of five generations of Shattuck doctors.  George followed in the tradition by graduating from Dartmouth in 1803, and receiving a MD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1807.  Their son, George Cheyne Shattuck, Jr. (1813-1894) graduated from Harvard in 1831 and Harvard Medical School in 1835.  He became one of the most eminent doctors and professors of medicine in New England.  The painting descended through him.

John Derby Davis

John Derby Davis is described this way:

The second subject of the painting, John Derby Davis (1792-1809), was the nephew by marriage of John Derby of Salem, Massachusetts - one of the leading and wealthiest merchants of New England.  John Derby Davis was baptized at the Hollis Street Church in Boston on March 4, 1792 - the day of his birth.  He entered the freshman class at Harvard in 1806 but died on December 11, 1809 before he had graduated.

See  Sotheby’s: Edward Savage (1761 - 1817) The Davis Children: Eliza Cheever Davis [Shattuck] (1790-1828) And John Derby Davis (1792-1809) Lot 897, January 18, 2018 - January 21, 2018..