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Accession #	43.36
Artist	Nehemiah Partridge
Title	Wyntje (Lavinia) Van Vechten
Date	1720
Medium	Oil on linen
Dimensions	40 3/16 x 34 9/16 in. (102 x 87.8 cm) frame: 49 3/16 x 43 9/16 x 2 1/4 in. (124.9 x 110.6 x 5.7 cm)
Inscriptions	Inscribed lower right: "Etas. Su[e] / 18- / 172[0]"
Credit Line	Dick S. Ramsay Fund
Location	Visible Storage: Case 15, Screen A (Paintings)

Curatorial Remarks: Portraits of Pan-American Privilege

These women’s ancestors were among the first European colonizers of the Americas. Some of those colonists crossed the Atlantic to serve the global ambitions of the various crowns of Europe, and others came as economic and religious refugees from Spain, England, and the Dutch Republic. By the eighteenth century, fabulous fortunes had been amassed throughout the region, reflected here in the European-inspired dress and jewelry worn by three privileged Americans.

Miguel Cabrera, eighteenth-century Mexico’s premier painter, portrayed Doña María de la Luz wearing imported silk brocade and five chiqueadores, or glued false beauty spots. Boston’s leading portraitist, John Singleton Copley, painted the monarchist Abigail Pickman Gardiner sporting an uncorseted dress—probably the artist’s invention, since the style was considered inappropriate in New England society but was the height of London fashion. The Hudson Valley portraitist Nehemiah Partridge captured Wyntje Van Vechten’s likeness with more restraint, emphasizing her simple hairstyle, minimal jewelry, and modest dress.