Mrs. Samuel Appleton (Julia Webster)
Artist
Chester Harding
(1792 - 1866)
Dateca.1840
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions49 x 40 7/8 in.
ClassificationsOil Painting
Credit LineJohn Butler Talcott Fund
Terms
Object number1972.91
DescriptionOne of Harding's most elaborate female portraits is this likeness of Julia Webster Appleton (1818-1848). The sitter is dressed in a fashionable velvet and ermine coat and matching feathered hat. Her black-and-white costume is strikingly set off by the rich red of the velvet couch and damask drapery in the background. Like many society portraits, this painting indicates the sitter's social status through her expensive clothing and tasteful surroundings. Yet Harding was interested in the faithful depiction of his sitters, not just mere flattery and artifice. Her kindly expression and clear eyes reveal the friendliness and generosity for which she was known.Harding was well-acquainted with the Webster family. Julia's father was Daniel Webster, the famous Massachusetts orator and statesman. Harding painted more than twenty portraits of Webster during his lifetime and had completed a portrait of Webster's first wife, Grace Fletcher, less than a month before her sudden death.(1)1 Julia and Harding's daughter Ophelia had been childhood friends. In his autobiography, Harding tells of attending the famous Robert Hayne-Webster debate in the Senate in 1830. The evening after Hayne's eloquent speech, Harding went to Webster's home to fetch his daughter, who was visiting with Julia. Considering the day's events, Harding expected to find Webster in his library frantically preparing the next day's response; instead he found him cheerfully playing with the two girls.(2)2
In 1839 Julia married Samuel Appleton Appleton, a Boston merchant from a prominent Beacon Hill family. The wedding took place in London, during a seven-month European tour in the company of Julia’s aunt Harriette Story Paige, Daniel Webster, and his wife, Caroline Le Roy Webster.(3)3 In Paris they dined at Versailles, the guests of King Louis-Philippe. Harding most likely painted the portrait of Mrs. Appleton upon the couple's return to Boston in early 1840.
A devoted daughter, wife, and mother of five children, Mrs. Appleton died of tuberculosis in 1848, a few months after her thirtieth birthday.(4)4 Her brother Edward had been killed only a few weeks earlier in the Mexican War.
MAS
Bibliography:
Chester Harding, “My Egotistography” (Cambridge, Mass.: J. Wilson, 1866); Chester Harding, “A Sketch of Chester Harding, Drawn by His Own Hand” (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1890; reprint, New York: DaCapo Press, 1970); “Chester Harding, 1792-1866”, exhib. cat. (Springfield, Mass.: Connecticut Valley Historical Society, 1952); “Family Connections: Portraits by Chester Harding”, exhib. cat. (Framingham, Mass.: Danforth Museum of Art, 1981); Leah Lipton, “A Truthful Likeness: Chester Harding and His Portraits”, exhib. cat. (Washington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery, 1985).
NOTES:
1.Lipton, “Truthful Likeness”, p. 94.
2.Harding, “Sketch of Chester Harding”, p. 148.
3.On the trip to Europe, see Julia Webster, May 18-October 21, 1839, Julia Webster Diaries, 1839-47, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston; Caroline Le Roy Webster, “Mr. W. and I” (n.p.: Ives Washburn, 1942); and Harriette Story Paige, “Daniel Webster in England” (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1917).
4.Walker Lewis, ed., “Speak for Yourself, Daniel: A Life of Webster in His Own Words” (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969), pp. 368-70.
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