Mrs. Thomas Sprigg

John Hesselius · 1764

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

125.3 × 96.5 cm (49 5/16 × 38 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Rococo

Painted in 1764, this portrait of Mrs. Thomas Sprigg carries the quiet dignity typical of colonial Maryland's merchant class — a woman rendered with careful attention to the textures of silk, lace, and soft flesh tones that signal both social standing and artistic ambition. John Hesselius was one of the most accomplished portrait painters working in the mid-Atlantic colonies, building his reputation across Maryland and Virginia over three decades. Trained under his father Gustavus Hesselius and shaped by the influence of John Wollaston, he developed a style that balances English formality with a more intimate humanity. His handling of fabric and light is particularly refined — drapery folds rendered with conviction, faces lit with a gentleness that keeps subjects from feeling stiff. Hesselius is also notable as an early teacher of Charles Willson Peale, one of America's most celebrated painters, who studied under him in the early 1760s — just around the time this portrait was made. Now held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, the original remains a quiet masterpiece of colonial American portraiture. This hand-painted oil reproduction replicates Hesselius's layered technique and muted palette stroke by stroke, giving the work the same presence and warmth it has carried for over two and a half centuries.