A Portrait of Elizabeth Willing Powel (1743-1830) (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society) (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society) ... of the American Philosophical Society)

Drawing on original manuscript sources, David Maxey has produced a persuasive study of a late-18th-cent. portrait & its subject. He has focused attention on an enigmatic painting that has long puzzled art historians, & the person portrayed in it -- a woman of talent & verve, whose life has remained obscure. Elizabeth Willing Powel occupied an influential position in Phila. society during & after the Revolution. She presided over a salon; spoke her mind freely; & maintained an extensive, illuminating correspondence. She was the trusted confidante of the country s first pres., whom she did not hesitate to instruct on where duty summoned him. Personal loss touched her deeply, & at a critical moment, the Phila. painter, Matthew Pratt, was commissioned to capture on canvas the grief she experienced. What happened thereafter to the portrait Pratt painted becomes an essential part of the mystery that Maxey has successfully undertaken to solve. This monograph will fascinate art historians as well as early American historians. Color portraits.