Mrs. John Biddle (Eliza Falconer Bradish)

Mrs. John Biddle (Eliza Falconer Bradish)

Thomas Sully

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eliza Falconer Bradish (1795–1865) was born to Margaretta and James Bradish of New York. She married Major John Biddle (see 24.115.1) in 1819. They had one daughter and four sons. A register kept by Sully records that this portrait was painted in 1821. The sitter is shown in a stylishly informal pose set off by the elegance of her velvet dress and fur boa. Although the portrait corresponds in size with that of Mr. Biddle, its color scheme and composition are not complimentary, making it unlikely that the work was intended as a pendant for Sully's 1818 portrait of her husband.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mrs. John Biddle (Eliza Falconer Bradish)Mrs. John Biddle (Eliza Falconer Bradish)Mrs. John Biddle (Eliza Falconer Bradish)Mrs. John Biddle (Eliza Falconer Bradish)Mrs. John Biddle (Eliza Falconer Bradish)

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.