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Rachel Bartholomew Davis
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
James Alexander Simpson taught art classes at Georgetown College and created portraits of the Washington elite. He made this portrait of Rachel Bartholomew Davis in the same year that he painted her husband, Thomas Davis, possibly on the occasion of their marriage. Rachel’s pose mirrors her husband’s, and Simpson painted the two figures so that their paintings might be hung facing one another. Rachel’s curls and rosy cheeks emphasize her youth and innocence as she enters into married life.
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineRachel Bartholomew Davis. ca. 1815. James Alexander Simpson, born Georgetown, DC 1805-died Baltimore, MD 1880. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Allen Little. CC0.
