Peggy Wagner
Datec. 1750 - 1760
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsCanvas: 16 1/8 × 14 1/8 inches (41 × 35.9 cm)
Framed: 21 × 18 7/8 × 2 inches (53.3 × 47.9 × 5.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of Emma Cheves Wilkins.
Object number1946.2
CopyrightThe images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextThis memorial portrait of Peggy Wagner shows a young girl in a pink dress with white lace trim and flowers in her hair. She wears a double strand of coral beads tied with white ribbon, and holds a peach. In an era of extremely high infant mortality, parents of means could commission a remembrance such as this of their dead child. At the time this was painted, it was believed that coral protected children from illness and evil and peaches were a symbol of virtue.
The Swiss artist Jeremiah Theus arrived in America with his parents and two brothers c.1735, and began his career in Charleston, South Carolina in 1740. He was the major portrait painter there until the 1770s, and more than a hundred of his paintings have survived.
