John Adams Elder (Virginia,1833-1895) oil on canvas posthumous oval painting, 1859, of Eliza "Lizzie" Hart Holladay of Orange County, Virginia, (1855-1859). Holladay wears a white dress and holds a sprig of flowers, with other flowers collected in her skirt, while she stands in an Arcadian landscape before a distant sunset. Signed and dated "J. A. Elder 1859," lower right. Housed in a molded gilt wood frame. Sight: 29 1/2" Hx 24 1/4" W. Frame: 38 1/8" H x 33 3/16" W.

Note: This painting is included in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Art Inventories Catalog, Inventory of American Paintings, Control Number IAP 9D640409. Biographical note: "The portrait descended in the Holladay family of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Eliza 'Lizzie' Hart Holladay was the daughter of Mary Jane Boggs (b.1833) and Henry Thompson Holladay who were married in 1853. Two years later they moved to a home overlooking the Rapidan River, approximately six miles from the Orange County courthouse. It was here at 'Riverside' that Eliza 'Lizzie' Hart Holladay was born. Lizzie was stricken with illness and died at age 3 and a half. The journals of Mary Jane Boggs Holladay describe her daughter's death, Elder's visit, and the resulting portrait: 'I omitted to mention that Mr. Elder, an artist from Fredericksburg, to whom I had written before Lizzie's death, arrived, the day after she died, and thought he could succeed in getting her likeness.' For history of family see 'Virginia Genealogies' by Rev. Horace Hayden." Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Art Inventories Catalog, Inventory of American Paintings.

Artist biography: "The son of a shoemaker, Elder was born in Fredericksburg on February 3, 1833, and from a young age exhibited artistic talent, painting the faces of local citizens on the fences around town. Impressed by Elder's work, a wealthy lawyer named John Minor funded the artist's training in New York, and then convinced painter Emanuel Leutze of 'Washington Crossing the Delaware' fame to take Elder with him to Germany, where the young Virginian studied for five years. During the Civil War Elder enlisted in the Confederate army and he was frequently assigned to make drawings for the Ordnance Department. A member of Caskie's Battery of Artillery at the Battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864, Elder made sketches of the scene the day after the event and later created a large-scale painting of it. (Former Confederate general William Mahone purchased the painting, beating out the head of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., who was also eager to acquire it.) In the postwar era Elder became well known for his battle scenes and portraits of Confederate generals—he painted Robert E. Lee eight times—as well as genre paintings of the Old South." Source: Encyclopedia Virginia, Virginia Humanities.

PROVENANCE: By descent through the family of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Thompson Holladay;  Anonymous collection, Richmond, Virginia; MacQuaan collection, Fredericksburg, Virginia; Jeffrey S. Evans and Associates, Nov. 12, 2016 auction, lot 298; Private South Carolina collection. 

Examination under UV light shows scattered retouching throughout, largest area to upper right, 1 1/2" x 1/2". Frame with liquid accretion to lower left and white accretion to upper left.