Portrait of Margaret Chew Bordley

John Wollaston the Younger · 1752

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John Wollaston the Younger

Kingdom of Great Britain · 1710–1775

John Wollaston was an English painter who specialised in portrait painting and was active mostly in British North America. He was one of a handful of painters to introduce English Rococo styles of painting to Britain's North American colonies. == Biography == Little is known of Wollaston's early life. He is believed to have been the son of a painter, born in London.

Independent artist guide by Momentable. Biography from Wikipedia; artworks credited to the museums that hold them.

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Portrait of Margaret Chew Bordley — The living window: art moves here the way it moves in your living room.

life: 1710–1775life
rights: Public domainrights

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How John Wollaston the Younger worked

From the record of their own practice.

Wollaston's artistic style changed little in the eighteen years he spent in the American colonies. His portraits feature rich depictions of fabrics and elegant poses, and his subjects are smiling and oval-eyed; many of his poses seem to be drawn from engravings. Some of his later New York portraits feature a landscape background; most focus on careful depiction of the sitters' apparel, which serves as a conspicuous symbol of their class. His treatment of the subjects' eyes in particular is considered somewhat peculiar, and serves to identify even his unsigned portraits. His later works, especially those painted during his Charleston sojourn, depict figures on a smaller scale than the 50x40 format preferred by his Maryland and Virginia patrons.