Stephen Salisbury I
Artist
Gilbert Stuart
(American, 1755–1828)
Date1823–1824
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 71.1 x 58.4 cm (28 x 23 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift of Stephen Salisbury III
Object number1901.32
Label TextBorn in Boston in 1746, Stephen Salisbury I rose to wealth and prominence as a shopkeeper in Worcester during the American Revolution. He married Elizabeth Tuckerman (1768–1851), the daughter of a successful Boston baker, in 1797. Stephen and Elizabeth had three children, but only their eldest, Stephen Salisbury II, born in 1798, survived childhood.
The elder Stephen was seventy-six years old when Gilbert Stuart painted his portrait in July 1823. Rather than depict a frail man of advanced age, the artist portrays Stephen as a robust and alert patriot with a flushed complexion and minute glints of white in his sprightly blue eyes. He wears a black coat of varying textures—possibly wool with a velvet collar, implied by the subtle variations of light and treatment of paint. His neck cloth is suggested by a casual arrangement of white frills and bows with light gray undertones for the shadows.
ProvenanceStephen Salisbury I to his wife, Elizabeth Tuckerman Salisbury; to their son, Stephen Salisbury II; to his son, Stephen Salisbury III, who gave the portrait to the Worcester Art Museum.On View
Not on view
