The artist was clearly influenced by the successful Scottish portraitist ALLAN RAMSAY (1713-1784) who was at the height of his powers in the mid 18th century. His portraits of women are especially notable for the warmth, tenderness, and bloom of their presentation, as well as for the technical facility with which lace and ruffles are reproduced. The influence of French Rococo portraiture is clear in the lightness and unpretentious elegance of these works.
MARY TRELAWNEY WIGAN (later Mary Trelawney May) was born in 1740, the daughter of the prominent physician, poet and author Dr. John Wigan and his wife Mary, sister of the wife of Colonel Edward Trelawney, Governor of Jamaica and Wigan's oldest friend. (A portrait of Dr. Wigan is also for sale on this website)
The two friends had travelled to Jamaica in 1738. Trelawney settled in Spanish Town, and Wigan married Mary Wheeler, daughter of planter John Douce, soon afterwards.
Wigan, alas, died in December 1739 before his daughter's birth in 1740.
He is buried under a black marble slab at St. Catherine's Cathedral Church in Spanish Town.
His widow Mary later married Daniel Stott.
The widow of Col. Edward Trelawney, Governor of Jamaica, and brother to Sir Jonathan Trelawney, Bart., Bishop of Exeter, was possessed of the manor of Stapledon in Devonshire by her husband's devise, and bequeathed it, in 1778, to her sister Mary, wife of Daniel Stott, Esq.
Mrs. Stott devised it, in 1783, to her daughter (by her first husband, Dr. Wigan,) MARY TRELAWNEY WIGAN, the wife of the Hon. Rose Herring May, one of his Majesty's counsel for Jamaica, (and descended from the Mays of Mayfield in Kent).
SIZE: 57.5 x 48.25 inches inc. frame.
PROVENANCE: Yorkshire Private Collection for many years.
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
You can view the stock and full dealer information on the Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art Profile Page
Portrait of Mary Trelawney Wigan C.1752; Follower of Allan Ramsay.
