Name/Title
Portrait of Harriet HamptonEntry/Object ID
1972.148.1Description
Watercolor on ivory painting of a young woman in a white dress with a blue shawl around her arms. The woman is sitting in a red chair, and there is an urn with a flowering bush behind her to her left. The portrait is encased in a wooden frame with a gold surround.Type of Painting
EaselArtwork Details
Medium
WatercolorSubject Person
Harriet HamptonContext
This painting of Harriet Flud Hampton (1823-1848) is attributed to miniature portrait artist Charles Fraser (1782-1860) of Charleston, South Carolina. Fraser would paint well over 350 people between 1818 and 1846. Self-taught, his typical medium was watercolor on ivory.
Harriet, the oldest daughter of Wade Hampton II (1791-1858) and Ann Fitzsimmons (1794-1833), was born and died at her family's Millwood Plantation in Columbia. Harriet was named after her grandmother on her father's side, Harriet Flud (1752-1794), and the name Harriet would remain in use for several generations in the Hampton family.
Although she was born into an affluent, politically powerful family, Harriet, like most other women in the nineteenth century, had little agency during her lifetime and in deciding how her life has since been remembered. For an unknown number of years, Harriet and her three sisters were victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by their uncle, James Henry Hammond (1807-1864). In 1843, 20-year-old Harriet confided this information to her father, well aware of the potential long-term consequences that coming forward with allegations about any man, much less the sitting state governor, would have to her reputation. While rumors circulated, exact details of this abuse and the fallout for both the Hamptons and Hammonds are only known through the private diaries of Hammond himself.
The public campaign mounted by Harriet's father to shame and drive Hammond from Columbia must have impacted the daughters’ reputations. Neither Harriet nor her three sisters ever married despite being advantageous matches for any man of their standing. Still, Harriet’s courage in standing up for her and her sisters reveals a clearer picture of who she was. Harriet, who purportedly had been ill for many years, passed away in 1848 at the young age of 25.Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Charles FraserAttribution
Attributed toRole
PainterDate made
circa 1839Dimensions
Height
5-1/8 inWidth
3-7/8 in