Artist/Maker

Rabineau, Francis

Place Made

Date Made

1802

Medium

watercolor on ivory –glass –brass

Dimensions

HOA: 2 9/16″; WOA: 2 1/8″

Accession Number

3187.1

Description

DESCRIPTION: Miniature portrait, watercolor on ivory, of a woman who has a large puffed white hat and white scarf around her neck. There is some lacework on the hat and her blouse. ties in the front. She wears a brown dress that is trimmed in lavender over the blouse, with blue ties in the front. Her only jewelry is a single strand of black beads. She has blue eyes which look to the left, and she is facing the viewer’s right. The background is light blue.

History

SITTER: Mary Poythress Epes Doswell of Nottoway County, Virginia was the wife of Major John Doswell and the mother of Mary Elizabeth Poythress Doswell, who made a needlework picture which is in the MESDA collection. The major and Mary Doswell lived at Cedar Grove, near the Falls of Nottoway. Major Doswell was Justice of the Peace of Nottoway in 1793, and later the Sheriff.

RELATED WORKS: Mourning miniature lamenting the death of Mary Poythress Epes Doswell’s son, Peter Epes Doswell (MESDA Acc. No. 3187.2); needlework by Mary Poythress Epes Doswell’s daughter, Mary Elizabeth Poythress Doswell (MESDA Acc. No. 3187.3)

Artist Biography

ARTIST: Francis Rabineau was a miniaturist and a crayon portaiturist who worked in New York City in 1791-92, and New Jersey 1795-96. He advertised in New Bern, North Carolina in March 1797, as having come late from Philadelphia and Washington. He placed similar advertisements in the Wilmington and Fayetteville, North Carolina, papers in 1798. A number of miniatures of North Carolina subjects are attributed to him. He was in Richmond, Virginia, in 1802 and in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1804. In both places he advertised only for miniatures. He died in Richmond in 1807 or early 1808.

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. T. Randolph Perkinson