Abigail Chesebrough (Mrs. Alexander Grant)

Inscriptions

Signed on bottom of window at right: "I Blackburn Pinxt 1754"

Provenance

David Chesebrough (1702/3–1782), Newport, RI, and Stonington, CT, 1754 [father of the sitter; this and the following according to letter from Dr. Charles M. Williams to Robert C. Vose, Jr., c. 1970; copy in curatorial object file]; by descent to his daughter, Abigail Grant (1734–by Dec. 1, 1807; born Abigail Chesebrough, also Mrs. Alexander Grant), Newport, RI, and London, 1782 [the sitter]; by descent to her grandson, Deacon David Chesebrough Smith (1782–1833), Stonington, CT, 1808; by descent to his daughter, Betsey Chesebrough Williams (1806–1860; born Betsey Chesebrough Smith, also Mrs. Charles Phelps Williams, Sr.), Stonington, CT, 1833; by descent to her daughter, Bessie S. Sherman (1832–1915; born Bessie S. Williams; also Mrs. Ezra Lewis Sherman), Chicago, 1860; given to the Stonington Historical Society, Stonington, CT, 1916 [letter from Dr. J. H. Weeks to Dr. C. Williams, Dec. 23, 1916; copy in curatorial object file]; consigned to Vose Galleries, Boston, by Oct., 1970 [Antiques Oct., 1970, 561]; Amelia Peabody (1890–1984), Boston, 1977; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1984.

Publications

Bolton and Binsse, Antiquarian (Nov., 1930), 50, ff. Morgan and Foote, “Descriptive List of the Work of Joseph Blackburn,” American Antiquarian Society 110 (1937), 30–31. Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 71–75, cat. 17 (ill.). Michael J. Boonstra, "Descendants of 'King' David Chesebrough of Newport, Rhode Island, With Clues to the Identity of His Son-In-Law, Hon. Alexander Grant, Esq., of Scotland, Newport, Nova Scotia, Jamaica, and London," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 156, no. 624 (Oct., 2002), 372–88 (ill.).

Quick Overview

Artist: Joseph Blackburn (English, active in British colonies in North America and Bermuda, 1752–64)
Date: 1754
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 127.6 × 101.5 cm (50 × 40 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: painting
Place: Newport
Department: Arts of the Americas
Credit line: Bequest of Miss Amelia Peabody
Accession no.: 1984.725

Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.