One large oil painting depicting a portrait of Sarah Olmstead as an elderly woman, she is seated at a table holding her glasses in her right hand and a red cover book in her left hand. She is wearing a black dress and a white bonnet with a frill that frames her face. The painting is displayed in an ornate gold painted frame.
Made/Created
Date made
1862
Notes
Support: canvas
Inscription/Signature/Marks
Transcription
"Sarah Olmstead // Wife of Nicholas Sparks 1st // B1787 // Bdeck5 1871".
Notes
Written in black ink on a white label with a red border, the label on the back of the painting.
Lexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
Painting
Nomenclature Class
Art
Nomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication Objects
Search Terms
Painting, Painting, Furnishings
Legacy Lexicon
Object Name
Painting (visual work), Oil, Painting
Dimensions
Height
107.1 cm
Width
86.6 cm
Depth
5.5 cm
Research Notes
Notes
Sarah Olmstead (c. 1790-1871) was born in the United States and immigrated to Canada. In 1808 she married Philemon Wright II (1783-1821), whose father Philemon Wright had established Wright’s Town (today called Hull). Sarah, who was sometimes called Sally, and her husband had eight children together. Sadly, Philemon Wright II died in 1821.
In 1826, Sarah married for the second time, this time to an Irish immigrant named Nicholas Sparks (1794-1862). Sparks had arrived in Canada in 1816 and began working for Philemon Wright as a farmhand. In 1821, Sparks used his hard-earned savings to buy 200 acres of land that overlooked the Ottawa River. Though this land was not suitable for farming, the planned course of the Rideau Canal ran almost through the center of the plot. In fact, a large portion of Sparks� land was appropriated for the Rideau Canal project and his petitions for compensation occupied him for the next 20 years.
This painting of Sarah was completed by an unknown artist around 1862, when she was 72 years old.
