Portrait of Angeline Collins Huggins

1854

Maker

Robert Hanna (1789-1854)

Measurements

Frame: 42-1/2 in x 37 in; stretcher: 34 in x 28 in

Materials

Oil on canvas
White pine and gold leaf on gesso frame, white pine stretcher

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of Carol Dougherty

Accession Number

2020.116

Inscription

"R. Hanna 1854" is painted near the bottom to the right of center.  A label applied to the top of the frame says, "G. W. DEWEES, / CARVER AND GILDER, / No. 176 South Second Street, / ABOVE UNION, PHILADELPHIA, / Wholesale and Retail Manufacturer of, / ORNAMENTAL & PLAIN GILT FRAMES / [----]oking Glasses, Portraits, Needle Work, Drawings, Certificates, / [----] Gilding in general, unsurpassed in workmanship, at consid- / [----] than city prices.  Old work re-gilt to equal new.  Frames, / [----]"

Condition Notes

The gilded and gessoed frame is flaking.  The painting is unlined, although the back side may have been varnished.

Provenance

The portrait descended in the family of the sitter.

Comments

The portrait of what appears to be an elderly woman has been identified by the donating family as that of Angeline Collins Huggins (1830-1916).  If her identify is correct, and it does not represent an earlier generation, she would have been 24 when the portrait was made.  She sits in a red chair and holds a red rose in her left hand.

The sitter is within an oval painted onto the canvas, suggesting it was originally intended to have an oval mask.  The artist, Robert Hanna, was born a Quaker in Campbell County, Virginia.  He painted in several places throughout Mid-Atlantic and South.  He died in Smyrna and is buried in Friendship Methodist Episcopal Church Cemetery, Chambersville, New Castle County.

The frame bears the label of George W. Dewees, a carver and gilder in Philadelphia.  He is listed at the rear of 6 Carpenter St. in the 1854 Philadelphia City Directory.

The painting was originally hung by a single hook in the top center of the frame.