Artist/Maker

Theus, Jeremiah

Place Made

Date Made

1750-1755

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

HOA: 30″; WOA: 25″

Accession Number

3974

Description

SITTER: Humphrey Sommers was born in 1711 in “the west of England.” In 1740 he came to South Carolina where he became a brickmason in Charleston. By the 1750s he had become a contractor, receiving prestigious jobs such as portions of the construction of St. Michael’s Church. He was calling himself “gentleman” in 1764 and then “esq.” by 1771. He was a good example of the mobility of the 18th century Charleston society. His first wife was Susannah; his second was Mercy whose portrait by Theus is owned by the Minneapolis Art Museum (MAM acc. 25.402). Sommers built one of the best surviving Rococo houses in Charleston. Located on Tradd Street, the house which was built 1769-70 and was the inspiration for MESDA’s two Charleston rooms (MESDA acc. 0000.7, 0000.8).

ARTIST: Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774) was born in Switzerland and immigrated to South Carolina with his family came to South Carolina when he was nineteen. His father, Simon Theus received a land grant for 250 acres on the Edisto River in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Jeremiah Theus was in Charleston and working as an artist by 1740 when he placed an advertisement in the South Carolina Gazette. He wrote that “all Gentlemen and Ladies may have their Pictures drawn, likewise Landskips of all sizes, Crests and Coats of Arms for Coaches and Chaises. Likewise for the Conveniency of those who live in the Country, he is willing to wait on them at their respective Plantations.” Over the next three decades Theus would establish himself as the painter of choice for the Lowcountry elite. It is estimated that more than 170 portraits by Theus survive.

Like most eighteenth-century artists, Theus sometimes relied on English mezzotints to inspire the poses and costume of his sitters. There are a number of works, for example, that use a variation of the dress worn by Maria the Countess of Coventry in a mezzotint by Richard Houston after a painting by Francis Cotes. An example of this print is in the National Portrait Gallery of the United Kingdom. (NPG UK acc. D34175). However, these same mezzotints were also an important mechanism by which London fashion was transmitted to Charleston. The refinement of dress and pose in Theus’s sitters was a reflection of their status in the larger 18th century material world.

RELATED WORKS: MESDA has copied two rooms, a parlor and a bedchamber, from the Sommers house on Tradd Street in Charleston (MESDA acc. 0000.7, 0000.8).

MESDA has five portraits by Theus: Sarah Proctor (Daniell) Willson (MESDA acc. 2024.52); Elias Ball III (MESDA acc. 2739); Humphrey Sommers” (MESDA acc. 3974); Hannah Dart” (MESDA acc. 4087); and Ann (Theus) Lee, the artist’s daughter (MESDA acc. 1179).

REFERENCES: Margaret Simons Middleton, “Jeremiah Theus: Colonial Artist of Charles Town” (Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1991)

Carolyn J. Weekley, “Painters and Paintings of the Early American South” (Williamsburg, Virginia: Colonial Williamsburg and the Yale University Press, 2013)

DESCRIPTION: Oil on canvas portrait of a man who faces the viewer at a three-quarters view, and is turned to the right. He wears a white stock, and his right arm is inside his dark coat.

Artist Biography

ARTIST: Jeremiah Theus (c. 1719-1774) was arguably the most popular painter of his generation in colonial South Carolina. There are over 170 known works painted by Theus between about 1739 and 1774. Probably born in Canton Grison, Switzerland, Theus came to America with his parents and family about 1735 and settled in the Orangeburg Township of South Carolina. By 1740 he had moved to Charleston, where he advertised as a limner who would draw portraits, landscapes, as well as coats of arms for coaches.
Like other colonial artists, Theus used English mezzotints for both costume and pose in his portraits. There are a number of works, for example, that use a variation of the dress worn by Frances Cotes in the mezzotint of Richard Houston’s painting. Although his style portrays a stiffness of pose, his popularity may have relied on his depiction of sumptuous attire. As Flexner notes, “He was a painter without dash and inspiration or any natural ability, except as a colorist, but he had learned his lessons in the Old World well enough to turn out portraits that made a handsome show of elegance.”

Artist Working Dates

1739-1774

Credit Line

MESDA Purchase Fund; Conservation made possible through the generous support of Richard D. Pardue in honoro of John Bivins, Jr.