Charleston Loan Exhibition

30 The youngest daughter of Nathaniel Russell (1738–1820) and Alicia Hopton (1753–1832), Alicia Hopton Russell (1789-1840) married Arthur Middleton (1785–1837) in 1808. With the union, two of Charleston’s most influential families, representing the merchant and planters classes, reasserted their promi- nence in the community. Representing American and European portrait traditions of the late-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, Alicia Hopton Russell Middleton was painted in her youth by Philadelphia artist Edward Savage (1761–1817) and in her adulthood by Scottish miniaturist Andrew Robertson (1774–1825). The self-taught Savage, most known for his portrait of George Washington (1789/1790), set up a Philadelphia studio in 1795 after a short sojourn in London where he studied under Benjamin West. Given her mother’s fondness for gardening it is no surprise that Alicia, at the age of six, was painted “among a nest of roses.” 1 Traveling on the Grand Tour in 1835, Alicia commented on the surrounding landscape, making specific references to “mommas garden.” Before her return to Charleston in 1836 she had her likeness taken by miniaturist Andrew Robertson, also an acquaintance of Benjamin West. While most miniaturists working in the nineteenth century celebrated the translucent quality produced by working in watercolor, Robertson imitated full-scale oil portraits by bathing his subjects in strong light. BJO 1. William Faux as quoted in Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., Early Western Travels, 1748–1846: A Series of Annotated Reprints of some of the rest and rarest contemporary volumes of travel… (Ceveland, OH: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1905), 94. Edward Savage (American, 1761–1820) Alicia Russell (Mrs. Arthur Middleton) Probably Philadelphia, PA, ca. 1795/1796 Oil on canvas, 45¼ x 36 ‹/!^ x 2¼ (framed) inches Historic Charleston Foundation, collection purchase, Charleston, SC, 67.1.1 Conservation and transportation supported by Mr. and Mrs. Douglas B. Lee Andrew Robertson (Scottish, 1777–1845 ) Mrs. Arthur Middleton (Alicia Hopton Russell Middleton) London, England, 1836 Watercolor on ivory, 3¾ x 3 inches; (case) 5 ‹/* x 4¾ x ½ inches Lent by Gibbes Museum of Art/ Carolina Art Association, Charleston, SC, by family decent, 1937.05.0002