Abigail Chesebrough (Mrs. Alexander Grant)
Joseph Blackburn
1754
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
127.6 × 101.5 cm (50 × 40 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
102777
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Dressed in imported luxurious fabrics and accessories, 20-year-old Abigail Chesebrough displays the material wealth of her family in Newport, Rhode Island, in this portrait by Joseph Blackburn. Her father, David Chesebrough, was a merchant and an enslaver, amassing his fortune through the triangular trade of people of color, molasses, and rum between Western Africa, the Caribbean, and New England. Blackburn shaped his career around the Atlantic trade networks developed in the 18th century. Prob...