Oil on canvas (lined), signed and dated 1884 at lower right, presented in a very fine period gilt frame with composition ornament.

Frame dimensions 38 3/4 x 33 1/2 in.

Accompanied by a photograph of "Aunt Rosalie" with the backstamp of studio photographer C. A. Pugh of Blacksburg, Virginia.

John James Porter was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. He studied art at Princeton University and later continued his studies at the Academy of Design in New York. After a European tour, he returned to the United States and traveled throughout the American South in 1854.

By 1860, Porter was settled in Rappahannock County, Virginia. He was a well known itinerant portrait artist and painted many prominent Virginians, including General Robert E. Lee and Governor William Smith. Landscape paintings by Porter are in several public collections including the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia and the Museum of Culpepper History in Virginia.

Stretcher marks; new stretchers; minor wear to frame.