Elizabeth Ferne

Artist John Smibert (American, born in Scotland, 1688–1751)

Date1724

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 128 x 102.1 cm (50 3/8 x 40 3/16 in.)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Terms

Object number1958.40

Label TextElizabeth Ferne, the wife of a tax collector in Lincolnshire, England, lost her husband in 1723. The following year, the Scottish portraitist John Smibert painted her attired in the elegant black garments of a widow shown here. Mrs. Ferne’s seated pose and accessories are borrowed from Smibert’s teacher, Sir Godfrey Kneller, the German-born painter who dominated the English court in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Mrs. Ferne commissioned a posthumous portrait of her husband, Henry Ferne, which is also in the Museum’s collection. John Smibert revolutionized art in Colonial America. He came to Rhode Island in 1728 as part of the potential staff for a college in Bermuda. When that never materialized, he moved to Boston, where his portrait practice boomed. Smibert brought a high level of sophistication to bear upon his works. Those paintings in turn, as well as the copies of Old Masters that he had assembled, and the engravings of British portraits he imported, became invaluable resources for a generation of aspiring young artists.ProvenanceJohn C.P. Langton, Linconshire England

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