Dolley Madison

Artist

William S. Elwell, 1810 - 12 Aug 1881

Sitter

Dolley Dandridge Payne Todd Madison, 20 May 1768 - 12 Jul 1849

Exhibition Label

Born near Guilford, North Carolina

Dolley Madison served as White House hostess during the administrations of the widowed Thomas Jefferson and her own husband, James Madison. Her effervescence doubtless accounted, in part at least, for the popularity of Madison's presidency in its last several years. After the end of Madison's term in 1817, Dolley helped her husband put his papers in order, selling a portion of them to Congress after his death.

William Elwell painted Dolley Madison's portrait in February 1848 and later sold it to her longtime friend William Winston Seaton, editor and co-owner of the Washington, D.C. newspaper The National Intelligencer. The portrait offers a glimpse of the aging Mrs. Madison, described by the artist in his diary as "a very Estimable lady-kind & obliging-one of the Old School."

Provenance

Belle Morse Johnson, Washington, D.C.; purchased 1974 NPG

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

1848

Object number

NPG.74.6

Restrictions & Rights

CC0

Type

Painting

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

Stretcher: 76.8 x 64.1 x 3.2cm (30 1/4 x 25 1/4 x 1 1/4")

Frame: 90.8 x 77.5 x 8.9cm (35 3/4 x 30 1/2 x 3 1/2")

National Portrait Gallery

Topic

Costume\Jewelry\Earring

Costume\Headgear\Hat

Dolley Dandridge Payne Todd Madison: Female

Dolley Dandridge Payne Todd Madison: Politics and Government\First Lady\First Lady of US

Dolley Dandridge Payne Todd Madison: Society and Social Change\Socialite

Portrait

Record ID

npg_NPG.74.6

Usage of Metadata (Object Detail Text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm47b384206-1281-42c0-933f-3afd1d38026b