Collections record Beta

Collection Record Detail

Object Name

Oil Painting - Mariann Wolcott (1765-1805)

Object Number

1983-06-1

Description

Oil on canvas portrait of Mariann Wolcott, 3/4 length portrait of a woman standing turned to the left, brown hair and hazel eyes, her left arm resting on the top of a green parasol, her right hand holding a glove, wearing a white silk dress with long sleeves, a blue waist sash and wristbands, white gloves and white lace shawl with roses pinned to her chest. She stands in a landscape of distant rolling hills with a stream

Comment

SITTER: Mariann Wolcott, (1765-1805) had this portrait painted in the year of her marriage to Chauncey Goodrich, a Hartford lawyer, Member of the House of Reps, US Senator and Lt. Governor of CT. Mariann died childless at the age of 40. In 1777, at the age of 11, she made 10,790 bullets from the statue of George III, which was removed from Bowling Green in NYC by the Sons of Liberty and under the direction of Mariann's father, Oliver Wolcott, Sr., it was brought to Litchfield. Oliver Wolcott, Sr. (1726-1797) graduated from Yale in 1747, moved to Litchfield where he was a lawyer and judge. Member of the Continental Congress of 1777, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Named Brigadier General of Continental Army in 1777, Member of the State Constitutional Convention and Governor of CT in 1796. He died in 1797. ARTIST: Ralph Earl was born in Worcester County, Massachusetts to a family of farmers and craftsmen. A Loyalist, Earl refused to fight during the Revolutionary War, eventually fleeing to England and leaving his wife and children. In England, Earl studied in the studio of well-known American artist and expatriate Benjamin West. He returned to America after the war with a new wife and established himself as a portraitist in New York. Alcoholism and growing debt landed Earl in prison from 1786 to 1788. With the aid of New York patrons, he regained his freedom through portrait commissions and settled in Connecticut. His straightforward portraits and occasional landscapes are noted for highlighting the achievements and material wealth of his Connecticut clientele.