Mrs. William Bonham (Ann Warford)

William Bonnell · March 6, 1825

Medium

Oil on panel

Original size

30.5 × 24.9 cm (12 × 9 13/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Neoclassicism

Painted in the early months of 1825, this intimate portrait of Ann Warford conveys the quiet dignity that defined American portraiture in the Federal era — a sitter caught not in performance, but in composed presence. William Bonnell worked within the Pennsylvania tradition of itinerant portrait painters, artists who travelled between households bringing formal likenesses to families of middling prosperity who lacked access to the celebrated studios of Philadelphia or New York. His handling of the panel support — a choice that predates the widespread adoption of canvas for smaller portraits — allowed for fine, controlled brushwork, particularly evident in the rendering of fabric and skin. The result is a surface that rewards close looking, smooth and luminous without feeling cold. The precise dating of the work to March 6, 1825, recorded in period documentation, is a rarity for paintings of this type, giving the portrait an unusual biographical specificity that connects Ann Warford to a particular moment in her life. Our hand-painted oil reproduction is made directly from the Art Institute of Chicago's archival reference, matching the original's tonal restraint, warm ground, and the careful layering that gives Bonnell's work its characteristic glow — a faithful rendering intended to last as long as the original itself.