Skip to main content
For this painting, Blackburn draws on several familiar tropes of Baroque and Rococo portraiture. He has placed Elizabeth in a natural setting, with a branch in full leaf just behind her and a fading sunset in the distance. In the lower left, he presents a deep recession into a (most likely imaginary) landscape. Elizabeth is shown with a taffeta shawl draped around her figure and billowing out behind her; and she is costumed in an exquisite gown and jewelry. She delicately fingers her shawl with her right hand; her other hand rests on the folds of her satin skirt. She bears a serene expression that communicates a sense of calm refinement. Blackburn was not especially talented at capturing the character-defining elements of his sitters, but conveying keen psychological insights was not the primary goal of the colonial American portraitist. Instead, Blackburn focused on the elements of the portrait that were most important to his patrons: Elizabeth’s elegant bearing and dress, her refined manner, and her youth. The flowering branch behind her may in fact reference the Browne family’s hopes for a fruitful marriage.
Elizabeth’s marriage to Robert Rogers was, in fact, fruitful (they had one son, Arthur), but it was not happy. Rogers was often absent on military assignments and expeditions, leaving Elizabeth with her parents in Portsmouth. In 1766, Elizabeth took the drastic step of traveling west all the way to Rogers’s post at Fort Michilamakanac in present-day Michigan. Her time, there, though, was markedly unhappy; she accused Rogers of ignoring and mistreating her. In 1767, the couple’s problems were compounded, when Rogers was accused of treason to the British crown. Elizabeth and Robert were again separated during his prison term while he awaited trial in Montreal. Although he was later acquitted, the accusations of treason and Elizabeth’s suspicions of her husband’s infidelities had taken their toll. In 1778, she appealed to the colony of New Hampshire for a divorce from her husband. It was granted later that year (Wambeke, Ann Marie. “Robert and Elizabeth Rogers: The Dissolution of an Early American Marriage,” in Brunsman, Denver, and Joel Stone, eds., Revolutionary Detroit: Portraits in Political and Cultural Change, 1760-1805. Detroit: Detroit Historical Society [2009], p. 49).
The provenance of this portrait is interesting. In the early twentieth century, Kenneth Roberts, a popular writer of historical fiction, wrote a fictionalized account of the life and adventures of Major Robert Rogers. Published in 1933, Northwest Passage told the tale of Major Rogers and his Rangers and their swashbuckling escapades fighting Native Americans and the French and exploring the wilderness. The book proved wildly popular. During the course of his research, Roberts became so fascinated with the life of Major Rogers that he decided to track down Blackburn’s portrait of Elizabeth Browne Rogers. He finally located the owner and procured the painting from her. Reynolda House acquired the portrait in from Roberts’s estate in 1967.
ProvenanceMrs. Katherine Wentworth Ruschenberger (born 1853), Wentworth Hall, Stafford, PA .[1]
Private Collection, Norfolk, VA. [2]
From 1949 to 1967
Kenneth Lewis Roberts (1885 – 1957) and Anna Roberts, Kennebunkport, ME. [3]
From 1967
Reynolda House Museum of Art, Winston-Salem, NC, purchased from an auction of the Kenneth Rogers’ estate through the Vose Galleries of Boston in July 1967. [4]
Notes:
[1] Joan Durana, Provenance research, 1983, object file.
[2] See note 1.
[3] Letter from Vose Galleries, July 19, 1967.
[4] See note 3. Also Bill of Sale.
Exhibition History1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York NY (1/13/1971-1/31/1971)
Cat. No. 2
1990 - 1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
2005
Vanguard Collecting: American Art at Reynolda House
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (4/1/2005 - 8/21/2005)
2006
Self/Image: Portraiture from Copley to Close
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (8/30/2006 - 12/31/2006)
2008 - 2009
Early American Portraits
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (5/13/2008 - 3/16/2009)
2017
Samuel F.B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (02/17/2017 - 06/04/2017)
2018
Outlaws in American Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (February 28, 2018 - December 2, 2018)
2021
The Voyage of Life: Art, Allegory, and Community Response
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (7/16/2021 - 12/12/2021)
Published ReferencesBayley, Frank W. Five Colonial Artists Of New England. Boston: privately printed, 1921:17.
Park, Lawrence. Joseph Blackburn, A Colonial Portrait Painter. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1923: 25.
Rogers, Mary Cochrane. Glimpses Of An Old Social Capital. Boston: D.B. Updike, Merrymount Press, 1923: 72-81.
Bolton, Theodore & Binesse, Harry Lorin. "An American Artist of Formula: Joseph Blackburn" Antiquarian (Nov. 1930): 90.
Burroughs, Alan. Limners And Likenesses. New York: Russel and Russel, 1936: 56.
Parker, Barbara & Wheeler, Anne. John Singleton Copley American Portraits. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1938: 251.
Roberts, Kenneth. "Joseph Blackburn and the Northwest Passage" Art In America 41 (Winter 1953): 4-21.
Roberts, Kenneth. "Blackburn's Elizabeth Browne." Art In America 45 (Fall 1957): 51-2.
Lassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings New York: Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., 1970: 6, illus. 7.
Millhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 22-5.
Schiller, Joyce K. Reading Portraits Through Buttons And Bows Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Museum of American Art, 2001: 8-9.
Rogers, Mary Cochrane. A Battle Fought On Snow Shoes Derry, NH: published by author, 1917: 12.
Wambeke, Ann Marie. “Robert and Elizabeth Rogers: The Dissolution of an Early American Marriage.” Revolutionary Detroit. Detroit: Detroit Historical Society, 2009.
Zaboly, Gary S. A True Ranger: The Life of Robert Rogers. Harper-Collins/University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.
Ross, John. War on the Run. Random House, 2009.
Dunnigan, Brian Leigh. A Picturesque Situation: Mackinac Before Photography, 1615-1860. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2008.
The Visual and Material Culture of Early New England. Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 2010.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 114, 115
DepartmentAmerican Art
Elizabeth Browne Rogers
Artist
Joseph Blackburn
(c.1730 - c.1778)
Date1761
Mediumoil on canvas
DimensionsFrame: 59 3/4 x 50 x 3 1/4 in. (151.8 x 127 x 8.3 cm)
Image: 49 1/2 x 39 1/2 in. (125.7 x 100.3 cm)
Canvas: 50 3/8 x 40 5/16 in. (128 x 102.4 cm)
SignedI Blackburn Pinxit 1761
Credit LineOriginal Purchase Fund from the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, ARCA, and Anne Cannon Forsyth
CopyrightPublic Domain
Object number1967.2.5
DescriptionJoseph Blackburn completed his portrait of Elizabeth Browne Rogers in 1761 during the period of time that he spent in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Portsmouth, a bustling seaport with several wealthy merchants, was Elizabeth’s home; her father was a prominent Anglican rector there. Blackburn’s portrait was most likely commissioned to mark Betsey’s wedding to Major Robert Rogers, a dashing military hero who had swept Betsey off her feet during a visit to Portsmouth (Eldredge, Charles C., Barbara Babcock Millhouse, and Robert G. Workman. American Originals: Selections from Reynolda House Museum of American Art. New York: Abbeville Press [1990], p. 22).For this painting, Blackburn draws on several familiar tropes of Baroque and Rococo portraiture. He has placed Elizabeth in a natural setting, with a branch in full leaf just behind her and a fading sunset in the distance. In the lower left, he presents a deep recession into a (most likely imaginary) landscape. Elizabeth is shown with a taffeta shawl draped around her figure and billowing out behind her; and she is costumed in an exquisite gown and jewelry. She delicately fingers her shawl with her right hand; her other hand rests on the folds of her satin skirt. She bears a serene expression that communicates a sense of calm refinement. Blackburn was not especially talented at capturing the character-defining elements of his sitters, but conveying keen psychological insights was not the primary goal of the colonial American portraitist. Instead, Blackburn focused on the elements of the portrait that were most important to his patrons: Elizabeth’s elegant bearing and dress, her refined manner, and her youth. The flowering branch behind her may in fact reference the Browne family’s hopes for a fruitful marriage.
Elizabeth’s marriage to Robert Rogers was, in fact, fruitful (they had one son, Arthur), but it was not happy. Rogers was often absent on military assignments and expeditions, leaving Elizabeth with her parents in Portsmouth. In 1766, Elizabeth took the drastic step of traveling west all the way to Rogers’s post at Fort Michilamakanac in present-day Michigan. Her time, there, though, was markedly unhappy; she accused Rogers of ignoring and mistreating her. In 1767, the couple’s problems were compounded, when Rogers was accused of treason to the British crown. Elizabeth and Robert were again separated during his prison term while he awaited trial in Montreal. Although he was later acquitted, the accusations of treason and Elizabeth’s suspicions of her husband’s infidelities had taken their toll. In 1778, she appealed to the colony of New Hampshire for a divorce from her husband. It was granted later that year (Wambeke, Ann Marie. “Robert and Elizabeth Rogers: The Dissolution of an Early American Marriage,” in Brunsman, Denver, and Joel Stone, eds., Revolutionary Detroit: Portraits in Political and Cultural Change, 1760-1805. Detroit: Detroit Historical Society [2009], p. 49).
The provenance of this portrait is interesting. In the early twentieth century, Kenneth Roberts, a popular writer of historical fiction, wrote a fictionalized account of the life and adventures of Major Robert Rogers. Published in 1933, Northwest Passage told the tale of Major Rogers and his Rangers and their swashbuckling escapades fighting Native Americans and the French and exploring the wilderness. The book proved wildly popular. During the course of his research, Roberts became so fascinated with the life of Major Rogers that he decided to track down Blackburn’s portrait of Elizabeth Browne Rogers. He finally located the owner and procured the painting from her. Reynolda House acquired the portrait in from Roberts’s estate in 1967.
ProvenanceMrs. Katherine Wentworth Ruschenberger (born 1853), Wentworth Hall, Stafford, PA .[1]
Private Collection, Norfolk, VA. [2]
From 1949 to 1967
Kenneth Lewis Roberts (1885 – 1957) and Anna Roberts, Kennebunkport, ME. [3]
From 1967
Reynolda House Museum of Art, Winston-Salem, NC, purchased from an auction of the Kenneth Rogers’ estate through the Vose Galleries of Boston in July 1967. [4]
Notes:
[1] Joan Durana, Provenance research, 1983, object file.
[2] See note 1.
[3] Letter from Vose Galleries, July 19, 1967.
[4] See note 3. Also Bill of Sale.
Exhibition History1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York NY (1/13/1971-1/31/1971)
Cat. No. 2
1990 - 1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
2005
Vanguard Collecting: American Art at Reynolda House
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (4/1/2005 - 8/21/2005)
2006
Self/Image: Portraiture from Copley to Close
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (8/30/2006 - 12/31/2006)
2008 - 2009
Early American Portraits
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (5/13/2008 - 3/16/2009)
2017
Samuel F.B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (02/17/2017 - 06/04/2017)
2018
Outlaws in American Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (February 28, 2018 - December 2, 2018)
2021
The Voyage of Life: Art, Allegory, and Community Response
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (7/16/2021 - 12/12/2021)
Published ReferencesBayley, Frank W. Five Colonial Artists Of New England. Boston: privately printed, 1921:17.
Park, Lawrence. Joseph Blackburn, A Colonial Portrait Painter. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1923: 25.
Rogers, Mary Cochrane. Glimpses Of An Old Social Capital. Boston: D.B. Updike, Merrymount Press, 1923: 72-81.
Bolton, Theodore & Binesse, Harry Lorin. "An American Artist of Formula: Joseph Blackburn" Antiquarian (Nov. 1930): 90.
Burroughs, Alan. Limners And Likenesses. New York: Russel and Russel, 1936: 56.
Parker, Barbara & Wheeler, Anne. John Singleton Copley American Portraits. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1938: 251.
Roberts, Kenneth. "Joseph Blackburn and the Northwest Passage" Art In America 41 (Winter 1953): 4-21.
Roberts, Kenneth. "Blackburn's Elizabeth Browne." Art In America 45 (Fall 1957): 51-2.
Lassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings New York: Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., 1970: 6, illus. 7.
Millhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 22-5.
Schiller, Joyce K. Reading Portraits Through Buttons And Bows Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Museum of American Art, 2001: 8-9.
Rogers, Mary Cochrane. A Battle Fought On Snow Shoes Derry, NH: published by author, 1917: 12.
Wambeke, Ann Marie. “Robert and Elizabeth Rogers: The Dissolution of an Early American Marriage.” Revolutionary Detroit. Detroit: Detroit Historical Society, 2009.
Zaboly, Gary S. A True Ranger: The Life of Robert Rogers. Harper-Collins/University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.
Ross, John. War on the Run. Random House, 2009.
Dunnigan, Brian Leigh. A Picturesque Situation: Mackinac Before Photography, 1615-1860. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2008.
The Visual and Material Culture of Early New England. Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 2010.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 114, 115
Status
On view
July 9, 1980
Object/Object