American School, 19th Century

Portrait of a Gentleman, Possibly Richard Noble Thweatt, Jr.
oil on canvas
unsigned
29 x 24 1/2 inches.

Richard Noble Thweatt (1780-1835) was a prominent planter from Virginia who married Mary "Polly" Eppes, a niece of Thomas Jefferson. Thweatt notoriously killed Edwin Fort in a duel in 1802 near Petersburg, Virginia, and was later summoned for jury service during Aaron Burr’s 1807 treason trial. Census records suggest Thweatt owned fifty-three enslaved individuals in Dinwiddie County in 1820 and sixty-five at his sprawling Chesterfield County estate by 1830.

This lot is located in Cincinnati.