Provenance
The sitter's son, Charles Ridgely [1830-1872], Hampton, Towson, Maryland;[1] his son, Captain John Ridgely [1851-1938], Hampton, Towson, Maryland; his son, John Ridgely, Jr. [1882-1959], Hampton, Towson, Maryland; purchased 1945 by NGA.
[1] The portrait was commissioned by the sitter's father, Nicholas Ridgely, who received it in the early fall of 1818. Records at Hampton National Historic Site do not indicate when the portrait came to Hampton, but the most probable period was somewhere between January of 1828, when Eliza married John Ridgely, and December of 1829, when her father died. Eliza was the principal heir to her father's estate, and received everything apart from a few specific bequests. (See letter of 24 October 1997 from Lynn Dakin Hastings, Curator and Acting Superintendent of Hampton National Historic Site, in NGA curatorial files.)
Accession Number
1945.9.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 214.5 x 142.5 cm (84 7/16 x 56 1/8 in.) | framed: 242.6 x 172.1 x 9.8 cm (95 1/2 x 67 3/4 x 3 7/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Maude Monell Vetlesen
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas American
Background & Context
Background Story
Lady with a Harp: Eliza Ridgely from 1818 is one of Sully's most celebrated portraits, depicting the young Eliza Ridgely playing a harp in a composition that combines portraiture with the musical subject in a way that recalls the tradition of British Grand Manner portraiture. The harp—a symbol of feminine accomplishment and refinement—allows Sully to organize the composition around the elegant diagonal of the instrument and the graceful curve of the woman's arm, creating a portrait that is simultaneously a record of a specific person and an ideal of feminine elegance.
Cultural Impact
Lady with a Harp is one of the most influential portraits in American painting because it established the visual convention of the American woman as an elegant, accomplished figure that would dominate American portraiture for the next half century. The harp—a symbol of feminine accomplishment—organizes the composition around the elegant diagonal of the instrument and the graceful curve of the sitter's arm, creating an image of American femininity that combined British elegance with American republican virtue.
Why It Matters
Lady with a Harp is Sully's American woman at her most elegant: Eliza Ridgely and her harp organized around the graceful diagonal of the instrument and the curve of the arm, creating an image of American femininity that combined British elegance with republican virtue. The 1818 portrait established the visual convention of the accomplished American woman that would dominate portraiture for decades.
