Name/Title
Portrait of Margaret Ann Boyd DuBoseEntry/Object ID
2022.1.1Description
Oil on canvas portrait of a young woman in a gold floral wooden frame. The figure is sitting in a red chair which is partially on view on the left side of the painting. She is dressed in black with a white lace shawl over her shoulders. A white lace bonnet covers the woman's head and is adorned with small pink flowers on the left side of her face. A bow is tied and positioned under the left underside of her chin.Type of Painting
EaselArtwork Details
Medium
Oil on CanvasSubject Person
Margaret Ann Boyd DuboseContext
Margaret Ann Boyd (1804–1880)—widow of Thomas Nightingale Johnson (1803–1825)—married David St. Pierre DuBose (1806–1879) in 1831. Their second son, John Boyd DuBose (1840–1895), was born in 1840, the same year this portrait was purportedly painted by William Harrison Scarborough (1812–1871). The younger DuBose married Scarborough’s daughter, Sarah “Sissy” Elizabeth Scarborough (1842–1886), in 1863. It is through the descendants of that union that this portrait and a landscape, “Crossing the French Broad,” were subsequently passed down.
Margaret brought considerable wealth to her second marriage, including Spring Grove plantation, which became the DuBoses’ primary residence. Its advantageous location near a boat landing on the Santee River (present-day Rimini, South Carolina) allowed for crops and goods to flow easily to and from Charleston. By 1840 the DuBose family enslaved 129 people on their plantations in present-day Clarendon County, and just prior to the Civil War the family’s estate was valued at $190,000. The couple remained at the home until 1876, when they joined surviving members of their family in Ridge Spring, South Carolina. They are buried at Ridge Spring Cemetery alongside numerous descendants and relatives, including William Harrison Scarborough.Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
William Harrison ScarboroughRole
PainterDate made
circa 1840