Portrait of William Tazewell Nivison (1789-1821)

Like many portraitists, Cephas Thompson frequently posed adult male sitters seated sideways in a chair with one arm casually draped over its crest. The pose gained great favor in the eighteenth century, when initially it signaled the subject's ease with himself and his surroundings. The turn of the body and play of the arms also added compositional interest. By the early nineteenth century, the pose had become a widespread standard for men's half-length likenesses.

In this painting, the pale color of the subject's eyes attracts attention, and the widely opened far eye imparts a slightly startled look. His chair incorporates the distinctly neoclassical element of rear stiles carved to resemble fasces (bundles of rods that, in ancient Roman times, were bound about axes and carried before magistrates as symbols of authority).

The frame dates from the 1880s, as is evidenced by the style of linear carving embellishing its flat surface. (At least three Thompson portraits of other family members were placed in the same style frame; it is not known why, exactly when, or by whom this was done, but presumably the paintings were intended to hang en suite.)

William Nivison was a son of Sarah Stratton and Col. John Nivison of Norfolk, Virginia. He practiced law there and died unmarried. His parents, three sisters, and one brother-in-law were all painted by Thompson about the same time.

Learn more at the link below.