Jeremiah Thëus

Jeremiah Thëus immigrated from Switzerland to the colony of South Carolina with his parents and brothers in 1735 at the age of nineteen. The family settled in Orangeburgh Township, a town established on the Edisto River by Swiss and German Protestants (Margaret Simons Middleton, Jeremiah Thëus: Colonial Artist of Charles Town. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1953, p. 16). Little is known of Thëus’s training, but he is presumed to have had some artistic instruction before departing Europe.

By 1740, Thëus had relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, a bustling city that served as the summer residence of the colony’s wealthy plantation owners. In September of that year, Thëus advertised in the South-Carolina Gazette that “Notice is hereby given, that Jeremiah Thëus Limner is remov’d into the Market Square near Mr. John Laurans Sadler where all Gentlemen and Ladies may have their Pictures drawn, likewise Landskips (sic) of all sizes, crests and Coats of Arms for Coaches or Chaises. Likewise, for the Conveniency of those who live in the Country, he is willing to wait on them at their respective plantations” (Middleton, p. 33). It was perhaps at one of those plantations, Hopsewee (near Georgetown, South Carolina), that Thëus painted the portrait of Elizabeth Allston Lynch in Reynolda’s collection.

With his portraits, Thëus concentrated on conveying the sitters’ elegance and status rather than their character. While the faces of his subjects share a marked similarity, the skill he demonstrated in rendering the sheen of satin and the delicate details of lace meant that he was much in demand as a portrait painter for South Carolina’s elite citizens.

Thëus enjoyed a long and successful career in Charleston. He was described as a “sociable, enthusiastic, energetic man” (Middleton, p. 46). He joined prominent civic organizations, offered drawing classes in his home, and fathered a large brood of children with two wives. When he died in 1774 at the age of 58, the South-Carolina Gazette noted the passing of “a very ingenious and honest man, Mr. Jeremiah Thëus, who had followed the Business of a Portrait Painter here upwards of 30 years” (A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Volume 1. Washington, D.C.: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1966).