Faith Savage, Mrs. Cornelius Waldo

Artist Joseph Badger (American, born 1707 or 1708–1765)

Dateabout 1750

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 127 x 101.6 cm (50 x 40 in.)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of the Hester Newton Wetherell Estate

Terms

Object number1922.214

DescriptionFaith Savage Waldo (Mrs. Cornelius Waldo) is a three-quarter-length portrait of an elderly woman facing three-quarters to the right; her eyes gaze at the viewer. She wears a white cap with two layers of fabric surrounding her face. The cap is tied in a bow with a narrow white ribbon at her neck. Mrs. Waldo has hazel eyes and a face that is nearly round, with creases to the sides of her nose and mouth. The modeling is stark, and the edges are hard. Her flesh droops along her jawline, and her throat swells between two creases.

Mrs. Waldo wears a brown dress patterned with lighter-brown flowers. White sleeves drape below the elbow-length sleeves of a shift. Her shoulders are draped in a plain, solid-white cloth. Her ruffled white bonnet is secured beneath the chin with a bow.

The subject sits in a high-backed wooden armchair with blue-green upholstery on the back and seat. In her lap she holds a book that is slightly open, to page forty-six. Mrs. Waldo’s proper left hand rests in her lap, its index finger extended. The hand’s contours are outlined with brown lines but have less detail than the hands in her husband’s portrait. Her proper left arm is awkwardly painted and seems disconnected from her body.

Behind the sitter, at the upper-right, is a solid-green drapery with fringed edges and a single tassel hanging from a braided cable. The rest of the background is a relatively even dark brown, with a narrow band of a light brown along Mrs. Waldo’s proper left arm.
Label TextIn this imposing image of Faith Savage Waldo, Joseph Badger reveals several clues about his sitter’s biography. Mrs. Waldo’s vividly patterned dress is a flowered damask, an expensive fabric—and probably relates to her successful business as a textile importer. According to a Boston advertisement, she offered “Sattins, Lute-strings, Mantua Silks, black Padosoy, Alamode, Damask Table Linnen, Chints, Callicoes, fine Cambricks, Muslins, Hollands, Garlicks and sundry other choice Goods, lately Imported from London, by Wholesale and Retail at very Reasonable Rates.” The book she holds in her lap also indicates that she is able to read and write: not a given for women in Colonial times and a necessary skill for a merchant. In addition to this portrait, Badger also painted her husband, Cornelius Waldo (1684–1753). At his death, his estate included land and one “Negro Woman,” who was valued at £200. Source: Inventory of the estate of Cornelius Waldo, Apr. 26, 1754, Suffolk County Probate, Boston, docket 10482. ProvenanceCornelius (1684–1753) and Faith Savage Waldo (1683–1760); their son, Daniel Waldo (1724–1808), and his wife, Rebecca Salisbury Waldo (1731–1811); their daughter, Martha Waldo Lincoln (1761–1828) and her husband, Levi Lincoln (died 1820); Rejoice and Rebecca Lincoln Newton; John Walcott and Hester Newton Wetherell (died 1899). On deposit at the Worcester Art Museum by 1915. Bequest of Hester Newton Wetherell, a direct descendant of the sitter.

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