Warner Lewis II (1747-1791) and Rebecca Lewis (b. 1750)

Warner Lewis II and Rebecca Lewis were the children of Warner Lewis and Eleanor Bowles Lewis. Eleanor later married Dr. Robert Innis and was painted as an adult by Charles Willson Peale. Warner Lewis II was also painted as an adult by Charles Willson Peale and was apparently painted in England while at school by an unknown artist.

Dimensions: 47 x 38 in. (119.38 x 96.52 cm.)

Two children stand outdoors in a landscape. On the left of the canvas is a young girl wearing a blue dress and a black hat with white plumes. Her outfit is a derivation of the “Rubens wife” masquerade costume that was popular in English portraiture. Her left hand holds up her skirt to reveal a white petticoat underneath. Her skirt is full of cherries and her right hand appears to drop cherries into her skirt. Next to her is a young boy. He wears a cream jacket with embroidered trim over a white shirt and brown trousers. His right hand gestures towards the girl’s skirt. His left hand holds up a sporting club. He wears black shows with buckles. A black ribbon is undone at his neck and a black queue ribbon is visible at his neck. He sits on a large rock. Cherries are visible on the ground in front of the girl and a ball is on the ground next to the boy.

See: Carolyn J. Weekely, Painters and Paintings in the Early American South (2013), 242; Merrow Egerton Sorley, Lewis of Warner Hall: The History of a Family (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, Co., 1935), 70.