Elizabeth Stevens Carle
Joseph Wright·c. 1783/1784
Historical Context
Wright of Derby's portrait of Elizabeth Stevens Carle, painted around 1783-1784, dates from the artist's mature period after his return from Italy. Wright painted numerous portraits of women from the prosperous families of the English Midlands, documenting the social world of the Industrial Revolution's emerging upper middle class. His female portraits typically combine elegance with an unpretentious naturalism that distinguishes them from the more idealized London portrait tradition.
Technical Analysis
Wright's oil technique creates warm, luminous flesh tones with his characteristic sensitivity to light. The portrait balances careful rendering of the face with a looser, more atmospheric treatment of costume and background, demonstrating his mature portrait style.
Provenance
The sitter, Elizabeth Stevens Carle [1761-1790], Baker's Basin, New Jersey; by inheritance to her grandniece, Sarah Smith Phillips Stevens [1841-1921], Trenton;[1] by inheritance to her nephew, James Francis Armstrong Phillips [1885-1956];[2] Frederick Titus Bechtel [d. 1948], Trenton;[3] by inheritance to his widow, Edna McNiece Bechtel [1880-1974],Trenton; purchased 17 August 1950 by (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[4} sold December 1950 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art. [1] It appears that after the sitter's death at the young age of 29 the painting was returned to her Stevens family. The sitter's niece (daughter of her brother Thomas Stevens Jr., and born after her death), Catherine Stevens, married James A. Phillips. Their daughter, Sarah Smith Phillips, married Thomas S. Stevens. See NGA curatorial files for extensive notes and documents concerning the descent of the painting in the sitter's extended family; much of the research was done in 2008 by Ashlee Whitaker, intern at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery. [2] James F.A. Phillips was the son of Sarah S.P. Stevens' younger brother, Benjamin Mershon Phillips. James is named in her will as his aunt's nephew, heir, and executor. [3] In a letter of 8 December 1950 to Eleanor Swenson of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, in NGA curatorial files, Elizabeth Clare of Knoedler's quotes a letter the dealer had received from Bechtel's widow: "Elizabeth Stevens['] portrait came to us [the Bechtels] from Mr. Phillips' aunt, Mrs. Sarah Phillips Stevens." Frederick Bechtel's family were neighbors of a sister of Sarah S.P. Stevens, although research has not yet determined whether the two families are actually related. [4] Phone conversation, 27 February 2008, with Knoedler librarian and archivist Edye Weissler, recorded in NGA curatorial files.
