Portrait of a young man, possibly Andrew Van Bibber (1802-1842) or Henry Patterson Van Bibber (circa 1800-1862)
ARTIST: Felix Thomas Sharples came from a family of pastel artists. He, his parents, a half-sister and a half-brother were all proficient in the medium; however, unlike the rest of his family, Felix tended to depict his subjects in a three-quarter or nearly full view. Together, the family traveled from England in 1793, seeking commissions for pastel portraits in New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, before returning to England in 1801. Five years later Felix and his half-brother James returned to America, working in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. They advertised that they worked oil and miniature portraits as well as pastel. The rest of the family came to America in 1809 but apparently remained in New York. Felix’s last known work was done in Mathews and Gloucester Counties, Virginia. Sometime after 1830, he died and was buried at Isleham, the Yeatman family plantation located across the North River from Toddsbury, in Mathews County.
Around 1814, Felix Sharples was introduced to the Van Bibber family of North End plantation (Mathews County) and served as a drawing instructor to their children. Two pastels in the MESDA collection have initials on the reverse that connect them directly to one of these children: Hester Elizabeth Henrietta Van Bibber (1800-1823). Across a large surviving body of family portraits in pastel, including this likeness, the line between the work of Hester and Felix remains unclear. In the mid-20th century, a portfolio that may have been shared between the two artists was discovered with evidence of tracing materials, perhaps one facet of their educational activity and artistic production process.
Hester was descended from one of the early Dutch families that settled at Bohemia Manor in Cecil County, Maryland. Her parents, Andrew (1768-1808) and Sarah Emory Van Bibber (1769-1836), lived at North End Plantation in Matthews County. After her reputed instruction by Felix Sharples, Hester briefly continued her artistic training at the Philadelphia boarding school of the Misses Lymans (Jerusha Lyman and her sister, Anna Lyman), likely only for the 1816 spring term. Numerous letters from her classmates are preserved at Duke University. These detail their own efforts to learn “crayon” through portraiture and landscapes.
Hester must have excelled with pastels: the same letters are peppered with inquiries about the progress of her artwork and pleas to send specimens to the writer. In 1822, her friend Mary Sayre shared word of Felix Sharples’ continued admiration for Hester and her family: “time and absence have not in the slightest degree impaired our friend Mr. Sharples recollection of his friends in the lower country; but that he continues as usual to descant on their merits every evening, and ends his panegyric generally with these words, “Oh! They are most su_pe_ri_or women.”
On July 2, 1821, Hester married Dr. Henry Wythe Tabb (1791-1864) of Toddsbury Plantation in neighboring Gloucester County, but their union was brief: Hester died giving birth to her first child in 1823. Her obituary paid homage to her artistry, observing that “beneath her pencil glowed “the human face divine;” (diviner grown by her consummate skill:) and all the varied hues-of nature’s blooming stores by her imitative touch a living semblance found.”
Dr. Henry Wythe Tabb and Hester lived with her family at North End. After her death, Tabb remarried and moved to nearby Auburn Plantation. A remarkable 1847 letter by Adam Foster (now at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture) described the furnishings and portraiture at Auburn, including “two or three landscapes drawn by Miss Van Bibber.” Hester’s own portrait held court in the parlor: “I have never seen a portrait which has such a dignified and aristocratic expression about the eyes and mouth. It has a pleasing as well as noble expression. The dress is of white with a profusion of lace about the neck and shoulders.” This may be a description of the pastel now in the MESDA collection (which descended alongside the likeness under consideration) but could also refer to the copy in oil completed by William James Hubard.
SITTER: The likely subject, Andrew A. Van Bibber (1802-1842), lived at “North End,” North River, Mathews County, Virginia. He was the youngest brother of Hester Eliza Henrietta Van Bibber, who married Dr. Henry Wythe Tabb. Andrew attended the University of Virginia in 1825 and married Elizabeth “Betty” Carter Garretson. The 1840 census records that Andrew enslaved 85 individuals at North End.
There are at least three other documented pastel portraits identified as Andrew (MESDA 2024.150, two in the Frick Photo archive), as well as a portrait loosely identified as his brother, Henry Peterson Van Bibber (2024.146).
RELATED OBJECTS: This portrait is one of three Van Bibber family pastel portraits acquired at auction by MESDA in 2024. The others are of Sarah Emory Van Bibber and Hester Eliza Henrietta Van Bibber. They joined five related family portraits acquired from the Bland Gallery in New York (MESDA acc. 2024.146-150). One of these, 2024.150, may also be a portrait of Andrew Van Bibber. Jr.
Many portraits and sketches by Sharples and Van Bibber descended in the Booth and Tabb families of Mary Mason (Wythe) Booth Tabb (1751-1814) and are documented in MESDA object database as well as the Frick Photo archive.
