Dorothy Chapin and her daughter Virginia S. Chapin

Dorothy Bingham Chapin (1900-1985) was painted with her youngest child, Virginia by the noted Richmond artist David Silvette shortly after her husband’s death. Cornelius Colton Chapin, Jr. (1893-1940) died in an automobile accident leaving his widow to raise their three children: Dorothy Saville Chapin (1924-2006); Cornelius Colton Chapin, Jr. (1926-2006); and Virginia Chapin Finlayson (1934-2005).

David Silvette studied under his father, famed portrait artist Ellis M. Silvette, and later with Cecilia Beaux and Charles Hawthorne.