Charleston Loan Exhibition

27 Henry Benbridge (American, 1743–1812) Thomas Middleton of Crowfield and his daughter Mary Middleton Shoolbred Charleston, SC, ca. 1778 Oil on canvas, 54¼ x 45 x 2 (framed) inches Historic Charleston Foundation, Charleston, SC, collection purchase. 71.6.1 Conservation supported by Merrill Benfield Like his friend Benjamin West (1738–1820), Henry Benbridge (1744–1812) was one of the first American artists to travel to Italy and sketch in situ the art and antiquities of its ancient cities. Influ- enced by artists like Anton Raphael Mengs (1728–1779) and Pompeo Batoni (1708–1787), Benbridge returned to America in 1770, poised to satisfy the growing appetite for full portraits in the neoclassi- cal style. In 1773 he arrived in Charleston and immediately found patronage with the city’s most notable residents. Benbridge painted Thomas Middleton (ca. 1750–1779) of Crowfield Plantation and his daughter Mary (1775–1816) in fanciful drapery-like dress. The richly colored and deeply shadowed fabrics highlight the faces of father and daughter. While the pose of the sitters is reminiscent of classical compositions, the romanticized land- scape in the background attests to European neoclassical tastes fueled by the undercurrents of the Enlightenment. KS and BJO Thomas Sully (English-born, 1783–1872) Mrs. Robert Gilmor, Jr. (Sarah Reeve Ladson) Probably Philadelphia, PA or Baltimore, MD, 1823 Oil on canvas, 46½ x 39 x 4¼ (framed) inches Lent by Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association, Charleston, SC, 1942.010.0003 Over the course of his life, Baltimore art collector Robert Gilmor Jr. (1774–1848) amassed a stunning collection of ancient and contem- porary art from America and abroad. It is no surprise, then, that he commissioned this portrait of his wife, Sarah Reeves Ladson, by one of America’s leading portraitists of the early-nineteenth century, the English-born Thomas Sully (1783–1872). Sully earned great esteem as a portrait artist, and except for a short sojourn in London, where he became acquainted with William Beechey, Thomas Lawrence and Benjamin West, he spent most of his career traveling along the east- ern seaboard of America painting portraits and history paintings. From one of Charleston’s most distinguished families, Sarah Reeves Ladson was a reported beauty, and in this likeness Sully captured both the grace and refinement of his subject. Also known to be a lady of fashion, Mrs. Robert Gilmor Jr. is shown in a colorful head turban, a style popular in America in the 1820s and 30s, and fur-lined jacket that offset her ivory gown. This portrait could have been painted in Sully’s Philadelphia studio on Chestnut Street, where he was located from 1823 to 1824, or during one of his many trips to Baltimore. BJO