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

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Eleanor Calvert



This 1761 portrait of Eleanor Calvert, with a bird on a string, by John Hesselius hangs in the Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore Maryland.

The Frick Photoarchives gives this description of the painting:
The subject has dark brown eyes and hair. She wears a white dress and pink scarf. Green trees, blue sky and dark gray clouds.
 And gives this, rather geneological biography of Eleanor Calvert:
Eleanor Calvert (1753 -September 28, 1811) was the daughter of Benedict Calvert, formerly called Benedict Swingate (1724-1788) and his wife, Elizabeth Calvert (1730-1798), who was the daughter of Captain Charles Calvert (1688­1733) and Rebecca Gerrard (c. 1700-1735). Benadict Calvert of “Mt. Airy,” in Prince George's County, Maryland, was the natural son of Charles Calvert (1699-1751), Fifth Lord Baltimore, by an unknown mother, possibly a member of the (d) Razzolini (f) family. Benedict Calvert had considerable wealth and held various public offices. Eleanor Calvert was apparently the twin of Elizabeth Calvert (Mrs. Charles Steuart)(b.1753). She married, first, February 3, 1774, John Parke Custis (1753-1781) of Virginia, the step-son of George Washington, and the son of Martha Dandridge by her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis. Eleanor Parke Custis and her husband were the parents of four children. She married; secondly, in 1783, Dr. David Stuart (August 3, 1763-l8l4) of “Hope Park” and “Ossian,” Fairfax County, Virginia, who was the son of the Reverend William Stuart {1724-179S} of Virginia, and Sarah Foote. Dr. Stuart is said to have graduated in medicine at Edinburgh. He was an intimate friend of Washington and is frequently mentioned in the latter's diaries. He was appointed by Washington one of the commissioners to lay out the city of Washington. Dr. Stuart and his wife, Eleanor, left a son and several daughters.
The inscription on the back of the painting, photographed by Ira W. Martin (Frick photoarchives) before the painting was restored in 1929, seems to say that “Ellinor” was 3 years old at the time of the portrait.

 Ellinor Calvert Æ 3
John Heʃselius Pinx  Maryland
1761

But the accompanying documentation indicates that I'm misreading “Ellinor”'s age; They give it as a more plausible 8. 


This 1780 miniature of Eleanor Calvert by John Ramage resides at Mount Airy in Rosaryville State Park. The image is available from Wikipedia.


But they give her birthdate as  “1757/1758”, consonant with the notion that she was actually 3 years old in 1761 when Hesselius painted her.

In 1926, this painting, and its companions, were restored, rebacked and put on new stretchers by Hammond Smith of New York. This Ira W. Martin photo shows condition of the painting before restoration.


Eleanor Calvert's portrait and that of her twin sister Elizabeth flank a door at the Baltimore Museum of Art.


The joint label reads:
Early Maryland families were tightly interwoven. Eleanor (1753-1811) and Elizabeth Calvert b. 1753), twin daughters of Benedict and Elizabeth Calvert, lived at Mount Airy Plantation in rural Maryland. Both beauties made good marriages. Eleanor, holding a bird, wed George Washington's stepson, John Parke Custis. Elizabeth, holding a rose, married Charles Steuart, whose father, Dr. George Steuart of Annapolis, won the silver trophy bowl on view nearby. The girls' father, Benedict, was the illegitimate son of Charles Calvert, fifth Lord Baltimore. He had lived at Dr. Steuart's house as a young man. -- Baltimore Museum of Art
 

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