Eugene Higgins
Artist
Cephas Thompson
(American, 1775-1856)
CultureAmerican
Dateca. 1812
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Overall, Frame: 36 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. (92.7 x 80 cm)
Overall, Frame: 36 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. (92.7 x 80 cm)
Credit LineGift of Thomas R. McNamara
Object number2001.13.2
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, 310, ROW 23
Label TextCephas Thompson American, 1775–1856 Eugene Higgins, ca. 1812 Oil on canvas Eugene Higgins developed a thriving merchant business in early nineteenth-century Norfolk. His refined clothing and sober demeanor in his portrait helped to represent him as an upright businessman and respectable member of his community. In 1809 Higgins placed an advertisement in the newspaper (reproduced below) offering a reward for the capture of Anderson, an enslaved man that he owned. The text included a detailed description of Anderson’s appearance, noting that he was likely “genteelly dressed.” While Higgins’s own portrait presented himself as an upstanding merchant, the written portrait of Anderson that he authored served a much more sinister purpose and complicates his legacy. Gift of Thomas R. McNamara 2001.13.2ProvenanceDescended through the family, 1812-2001 (this portrait was of the donor's Grandmother's grandparents); Gift of Thomas R. McNamara to the Chrysler Museum of Art, 2001. Exhibition History"The Norfolk Rooms," Willoughby-Baylor House, Norfolk, VA, opened August 16, 2014.Published ReferencesDeborah L. Sisum, "'A Most Favorable and Striking Resemblance': The Virginia Portraits of Cephas Thompson," _Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts_ 23 (Summer 1997): 48, 74.
Pair/Pair