Mrs. Robert Young Hayne (Rebecca Brewton Motte Alston)
Artist
Samuel F.B. Morse
(American, 1791-1872)
CultureAmerican
Dateca. 1820
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 30 1/2 x 25 1/8 in. (77.5 x 63.8 cm)
Overall, Frame: 37 1/4 x 2 1/2 x 32 in. (94.6 x 6.4 x 81.3 cm)
Overall, Frame: 37 1/4 x 2 1/2 x 32 in. (94.6 x 6.4 x 81.3 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase and gift of Mrs. William Sloane, in memory of Margaret Bell Irvine, and of the Norfolk Society of Arts, by exchange
Object number80.120
Not on view
DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting of a young brown-haired woman with a white dress and pink shawl. She rests her right arm on the table, next to her, and looks slightly to the right, beyond the viewer. The dress is made of lace with a high, decorative collar. She also wears a red beaded necklace and a brooch in the center of her chest.Label TextSamuel F. B. Morse American, 1791–1872 Mrs. Robert Young Hayne (Rebecca Brewton Motte Alston), ca. 1820 Oil on canvas With her patterned pink shawl, lacy gown, and hair in a magnificent mountain of curls, Rebecca Hayne is the pinnacle of antebellum Southern style and wealth. This portrait was painted around the time of this Charleston heiress’s marriage to Robert Hayne, who later became a U.S. senator and the governor of South Carolina. Though local portrait artists were available, the Haynes employed the more prestigious services of a visiting young painter from New York. Samuel Morse later became famous for inventing the telegraph and Morse Code. Museum purchase and gift of Mrs. William Sloane, in memory of Margaret Bell Irvine, and of the Norfolk Society of Arts, by exchange 80.120 ProvenanceRobert Young Hayne; Mrs. William Alston Hayne, San Francisco; Mrs. Alan G. Pattee, great-granddaughter of Robert Young Hayne; private collection, Youngstown, Ohio; M. Knoedler & Co., New York, by 1968; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Gift of Mrs. William Sloane in memory of Margaret Bell Irvine and the Norfolk Society of the Arts to the Chrysler Museum, 1980. Exhibition History"American Portraits," M. Knoedler & Co., New York, N.Y., October 9 - November 2, 1968. (Exh. cat. no. 17) "What Is American in American Art," M. Knoedler & Co., New York, N.Y., February 9 - March 6, 1971. (Exh. cat. no. 40) "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. "Samuel F. B. Morse," Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University, N.Y., September 14 - October 23, 1982. (Exh. cat. no. 18) "Painting in the South 1564-1980," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Va., September 14 - November 27, 1983; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Ala., January 8 - March 4, 1984; National Academy of Design, New York, N.Y., April 12 - May 27, 1984; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Miss., June 24 - August 26, 1984; J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Ky., September 16 - November 11, 1984; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, La., December 9, 1984 - February 3, 1985. (Exh. cat. no. 56) "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. "Classical Traditions at the Moses Myers House," Moses Myers House, Norfolk, VA, April 17 - December 1, 2013. Published ReferencesLloyd Goodrich and Mary Black, _What Is American in American Art_, exh. cat., M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1971, 29. Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 83. Paul J. Staiti and Gary A. Reynolds, _Samuel F. B. Morse_, exh. cat., Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University, N.Y., 1982, 35, 37, Fig. 36, 88. Ella-Prince Knox, Donald B. Kuspit, David S. Bundy, et al., _Painting in the South: 1564-1980_, exh. cat., Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1983, 44, 45, fig. 25, 216-217. ISBN: 0917046145 William Kloss, _Samuel F. B. Morse_ (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1988), 62-63, 64. ISBN: 0810915316 Paul J. Staiti, _Samuel F. B. Morse_ (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 59. ISBN: 0521322189 Christie Zimmerman Fant et al., eds., _South Carolina Portraits: A Collection of Portraits of South Carolinians and Portraits in South Carolina_ (Columbia, SC: National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of South Carolina, 1996), 154. Maurie D. McInnis, _The Politics of Taste in Antebellum Charleston_, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, June 2005). ISBN: 080782951X Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 38, no. 14. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6 Maurie D. McInnis, _The Politics of Taste in Antebellum Charleston_ (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 306-307, fig. 9.26. ISBN: 0-80782951X
19th century
