Phebe Russell Swain Welch
Sheldon Peck
c. 1837
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
65.4 × 55.3 cm (25 3/4 × 21 3/4 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
76166
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Sheldon Peck rendered the distinctive likenesses of his two sitters, William and Phebe Welch, using hard-edged lines and modeled forms (see William W. Welch, 1990.100.1). Amid a dark setting, the couple’s intense gazes hold our attention. Their names and dates of birth are inscribed in golden yellow paint, emphasizing their identities. The Welches were among the white settler-colonialists who established homesteads in Illinois in the early 19th century. Beginning in 1834, they lived near Elgin a...