The first life portrait painted by John Wood Dodge,
of his sister, Charlotte S. Wardell,
inscribed, signed & dated 1828.

Dodge, a self-taught artist, was just twenty years old when this important documentary work was painted.

Charlotte Sophia Dodge (1805-1840) was the third of the eleven children of John Dodge and Margaret English Wood. Their fourth child and first son was artist John Wood Dodge. In 1828, the year of this portrait, Charlotte married Henry O. Wardell.

Set in the original pressed gilt metal mount withing a black wood frame. The reverse with inscription in Dodge's hand, "This is the 2nd attempt/ at painting a human figure,/ and the first from life/ by John W. Dodge./ New York City, 1828./ Liknefs of/ Mrs. Charlotte S. Wardell./ Sister to the Painter."

2 3/4 inches high.

John Wood Dodge, A.N.A., (1807-1893), certainly one of the finest 19th century American miniaturists, was a self-taught academic artist. Born in New York City and apprenticed to a tinsmith at sixteen, Dodge taught himself to paint miniatures by copying one he had borrowed from a friend. By the time he was twenty two, he was exhibiting at the National Academy of Design where he was elected Associate in 1832. Though he was a leading miniaturist in New York City, Dodge moved to Nashville in 1841 because of ill health. He traveled Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana where his skilled, sophisticated portraits were much in demand. During this time, his sitters included Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay. A copy of Dodge's detailed account book is in the Archives of American Art.

Provenance:      
         Juliet Lavinia Dodge Smith (1843-1900), daughter of the artist,
        William Zenas Smith, her son, Twin Falls, Idaho,
        By descent.

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