Portrait of a Woman 1749 - 1752

John Wollaston painted this portrait of an unknown woman in the mid-18th century, likely using oil on canvas. Portraits such as this one were made possible by the economic structures of the British colonies. It is likely that the sitter, and probably Wollaston himself, were beneficiaries of the slave economy. This painting participates in the creation of a new colonial aristocracy whose wealth depended on enslaved labour. In the colonies, the conventions of formal portraiture were used to communicate elite status. Through close examination of Wollaston’s painting and others like it, we can consider what these visual codes tell us about the formation of colonial identity. Researching the economic history of the Wollaston family and of his patrons sheds light on the social conditions that made paintings like this possible.