Elizabeth Ann Gibson
ARTIST: The “Guilford Limner” is the working name assigned to an unknown watercolor artist, most of whose attributed works were painted in Guilford County, North Carolina in 1826 and 1827. Typical features of the Guilford County likenesses include faces with large, luminous eyes with eyelashes, decorative architectural backgrounds, and sitter names and dates inscribed in block lettering. Later North Carolina portraits, probably painted between 1828 and 1832, are of subjects living in Mecklenburg, Iredell and Rutherford Counties. These differ from the Guilford County portraits in that they do not include decorative interiors or inscribed names, but do include a radiating background behind the figures.
In addition to the North Carolina portraits, nineteen examples of the Limner’s work have been identified with Kentucky histories from Breckenridge, Clark, Bourbon, Franklin, Green, Washington and Lincoln Counties, dated between 1818 and 1825, providing ample evidence that the artist worked in Kentucky before coming to North Carolina. Five South Carolina portraits are known, three of subjects from Union County (Spartanburg), and two from Fairfield County, the latter of which are dated 1832, confirming the Guilford Limner’s working dates from 1818-1832.
RELATED OBJECTS: MESDA has four portraits of the Gibson family by the Guilford Limner (MESDA cc. 5642.1-4). The collection also has two additional works by the Guilford Limner, portraits of Jacob Foust and Mary (Clapp) Foust (5753.1-2).
DESCRIPTION: Watercolor portrait of Elizabeth Ann Gibson, 1827. Likeness of a young woman facing forward wearing a blue dress with a white lace fan collar, a red plaid belt, blue beaded necklace, and tortoiseshell hair comb. She is holding an open book in her proper right hand with her left hand resting in her lap. She is seated in a painted armchair with scrolled armrest. A light blue sky-like background is behind her with flanking sprigs of leaves and pink roses on either side. Below the figure the sitter’s name and the date of the portrait are inscribed in block letters within a decorative frame. At the bottom of the sheet, below the likeness, the sitter’s age is penned in cursive script.
In the nearly forty known examples, sitters’ names frequently appear below their likenesses or in the backgrounds, and dated works range from 1820 to 1827. The North Carolina subjects were successful merchants, plantation owners, and their families, most of whom were related, knew one another, and lived within a five-mile radius of Greensboro. Adults are seated indoors, facing forward or in three-quarter poses. Some male subjects sit cross-legged, while others are seated at tables, writing letters or attending to business accounts. Women often hold handkerchiefs, books, or knitting implements. Children usually stand indoors, or are posed outdoors in landscape or garden settings. Carefully rendered faces are distinguished by large eyes with oversize irises. Hands did not intimidate the artist, for they appear in all the known portraits. Plants are prominent, including flowering vines that flank or arch over some sitters, as well as trees, rosebushes, cut flowers, and, in one instance, ears of corn.
Room furnishings are an integral part of many portraits, making the works valuable records of early-nineteenth-century North Carolina domestic tastes. Adults and youths are seated in painted and gilded fancy chairs, and one elderly subject sits in a turned armchair. Patterned carpets or floor cloths, candle stands, and drop-leaf tables are standard props. Wainscoting and chair rails brightened by faux marble decoration painted in vivid, contrasting hues also appear frequently.
The most vexing question about the Guilford Limner, besides the artist’s identity, regards the source or inspiration for these compositions. Portraits by the Canadian watercolor artist, Thomas Macdonald (c. 1784–1862), come to mind, but it is unlikely that their paths crossed. No body of work of comparable size, originality, or technical proficiency from this period painted in America is known. One explanation, which the two references to the artist may support, is that the Guilford Limner was foreign-born and introduced a new style of portraiture to America.
See also Painting, American Folk; Watercolors.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Carroll, Karen Cobb. Windows to the Past: Primitive Watercolors from Guilford County, North Carolina, in the 1820s. Greensboro, N.C., 1983.
Little, Nine Fletcher. Little by Little: Six Decades of Collecting American Decorative Arts. New York, 1984
