Mrs. Jacob Motte (Rebecca Brewton)

Art Historical Context

This delicate miniature portrait captures Rebecca Brewton, wife of prominent South Carolina planter Jacob Motte, around the time of their marriage. Painted by Jeremiah Theus, one of colonial America’s leading portraitists, the work reflects the refined tastes of the mid-eighteenth-century Southern elite. Its modest scale—just over an inch tall—invites intimate viewing, suggesting it was created as a cherished personal keepsake rather than a formal display piece. Theus rendered the likeness in watercolor on ivory, a demanding technique prized for its luminous, jewel-like quality. The smooth ivory surface allowed subtle gradations of color and fine detail in lace, jewelry, and expression, while its portability made such miniatures ideal tokens of affection or status exchanged among colonial families. As an American artist working primarily in Charleston, Theus blended European conventions of miniature painting with the practical needs of his provincial patrons. Housed today in the Metropolitan Museum’s American Wing, the portrait offers a vivid glimpse into the private world of early American women and the artistic traditions that flourished in the decades before the Revolution.

About the Artist

Jeremiah Theus · 1716–1774

Jeremiah Theus (1716–1774) was a Swiss-born American portrait painter who became the leading artist in colonial Charleston, South Carolina. Born on April 5, 1716, in Chur, Switzerland, as the eldest child of Simeon and Anna Walser Theüs, he immigrated with his family in 1735 at age nineteen. The family settled in Orangeburgh Township under colonial land grants encouraging Protestant settlement. Th...