Artist/Maker

Benbridge, Esther “Hetty” (Sage) __Attributed to

Place Made

Date Made

1770-1775

Medium

watercolor on ivory –glass –gold

Dimensions

HOA: 1 1/2; WOA: 1 1/4

Accession Number

3353.2

Description

SITTER: Ann Moodie (1749-1821) was born in Scotland but came to Savannah as a young girl with her parents, Thomas and Jean (McKenzie) Moodie. Her father then served as Deputy Secretary to the Colony of Georgia. According to family history, “when about twenty-one years of age, Thomas Moodie who was of the Laird of Cocklaw, Parish of Beath, Fifeshire, ran away with a beautiful girl, Miss [Jean] McKenzie, and later they emigrated to America. Their daughter, Ann, was born in 1749 before they left Scotland.” At the age of 26, she became engaged to George Houstoun and they were married on December 14, 1774. The Georgia Gazette published a notice of their wedding, “Thursday last, was married in this place, Mr. George Houstoun, Merchant, son of the late Sir Patrick Houstoun, Baronet, to Miss Ann Moodie, daugther of Thomas Moodie, Esq.”

This is probably one of the miniatures mentioned in her daugher Jean (Houstoun) Woodruff’s 1848 will. The gold bracelet to which the miniature is mounted is in a mid-to-late Victorian style of the 1870s, and an identical gold bracelet survives on the circa 1785 miniature of Sir George Houstoun attributed to the British artist George Engelheart (MESDA Acc. 3353.1).

ATTRIBUTION and ARTIST: This work has been attributed to Hetty Benbridge (d. 1776), the wife of Lowcountry artist Henry Benbridge. Esther (Sage) Benbridge, known as Hetty, had trained in Philadelphia under Charles Willson Peale, who later noted her skills in painting miniatures. When she arrived in Charleston on April 5, 1773, the South Carolina Gazette described her as “a very ingenious Miniature Paintress.” This miniature was painted around the time of Ann’s 1774 marriage, which corresponds closely with Hetty’s working dates from her arrival in 1773 until her death in 1776. Three large group portraits attributed to her husband Henry–depicting the Bulloch, Tannatt, and Wylly families–suggest the Benbridges were in Savannah in the mid 1770s. The Tannatt family portrait features Ann’s mother-in-law, Lady Priscilla Houstoun (1711-1775), her brother-in-law James Houstoun and his wife, Elizabeth Tannatt Houstoun. It is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada (NGC acc. 9003).

For more on Hetty Benbridge and the attribution of Ann Moodie Houston’s miniature, see:
Robert G. Stewart, “Henry Benbridge (1743-1812): American Portrait Painter” (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Portrait Gallery, 1971), 82-85, Fig. 147.

RELATED OBJECTS: MESDA also owns a circa 1785 miniature of her husband Sir George Houstoun attributed to the British artist George Engelheart (acc. 3353.1). The Museum also owns a pair of mourning miniatures by artist Samuel Folwell (1765-1813) that were painted for Ann between 1792-1795.

DESCRIPTION: Watercolor on ivory, miniature portrait of a woman that is set inside a gold bracelet. She wears a tight pearl necklace with her low cut pink dress. Her hair is brown and is tied in a bun upon her head.

Credit Line

Gift of Dr. Lucia Karnes and Mrs. Jean Rooney