Mrs. William Carmichael

John Hesselius · 1764–78

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

68 × 53.3 cm (26 3/4 × 21 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Rococo

Mrs. William Carmichael presents the quiet authority of colonial American womanhood with a directness that still resonates across three centuries. John Hesselius was one of the most accomplished portrait painters working in the American colonies during the mid-eighteenth century, trained in part by his father Gustavus Hesselius and influenced by the English manner brought over by John Wollaston. He built his career painting the merchant and planter classes of Maryland and Virginia, developing a style that balanced the formal conventions of British portraiture with a more intimate, observant quality. His handling of fabric and lace is particularly assured — textures rendered with a patience that rewards close looking. Hesselius is notably remembered as one of the earliest teachers of Charles Willson Peale, who would go on to become one of the most important painters in early American history. This hand-painted oil reproduction on canvas faithfully recreates Hesselius's layered brushwork, his subtle modelling of the sitter's face, and the warm, composed atmosphere that makes the original — held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago — such a rewarding example of colonial American portraiture.