Portrait of Eldad Cook Lore

1835-1845

Maker

Attributed to Robert Hanna (1789-1854)

Measurements

Frame: 37-1/2 in x 32-3/8 in x 2 in; painting: 30 in x 25 in

Materials

Oil on linen canvas

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of Tom Jones

Accession Number

2026.79

Inscription

“12 INCH PILLOW LINEN” is stenciled on the back of the linen at the far left side facing the back of the canvas.

Condition Notes

The painting was relined about 1980.  The frame appears to be original.  It has a few very minor losses to the applied molded decoration.

Provenance

The portrait and its mate descended in the family of the donor.

Comments

The oval profile portrait, one of a pair with accession no. 2026.80, shows a gentleman facing left and wearing a black coat, white shirt, and white cravat.  He has curly black hair and trimmed sideburns.  The donor, in whose family this portrait and the companion portrait descended, identified the sitter as Eldad Cook Lore (1796-1850). He and his wife, Priscilla Henderson Lore (1798-1883), are buried in Old Saint Paul’s Church Cemetery, Odessa, along with their two sons.  Two of their daughters are buried in Wilmington and Dover.  Information about the two sitters is sketchy, but their son Charles Brown Lore (1831-1911), who served two terms in the US Congress, was born in Odessa.

Proximity and timing introduce the possibility that the portrait and its mate were painted by Robert Hanna of nearby Smyrna.  Some specific resemblances exist between the portrait of Priscilla and a signed and dated portrait of Angeline Collins Huggins (see accession nos. 2026.80 and 2020.116).

The portrait is mounted on an oval stretcher set within what appears to be the original oval frame. The linen canvas bears a stencil on the back proclaiming “12 INCH PILLOW LINEN,” an inscription that has not revealed further information about the origin of the materials.