Artwork
Cora Livingston
Cora Livingston is an oil painting by the American Folk Art artist Charles Cromwell Ingham. It dates from 1833 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Charles Cromwell Ingham’s oil on canvas, titled Cora Livingston, dates to around 1833. The work portrays a seated woman in a red chair, her dark red dress and curled brown hair framing a poised figure who cradles a guitar. The composition balances color and form, presenting a quiet, intimate moment that reflects early nineteenth‑century portrait conventions.
Subject & Meaning
The sitter, identified as Cora Livingston, is depicted with a guitar, suggesting a personal affinity for music or a cultivated leisure activity typical of genteel women of the period. Her attire and coiffure signal a respectable social standing, while the relaxed posture conveys a sense of refinement and private contemplation within a domestic setting.
Technique & Style
The warm palette—rich reds and earth tones—enhances the sitter’s presence, while the soft modeling of light creates a gentle three‑dimensionality.
Ingham employs a smooth, polished brushwork characteristic of Romantic portraiture, emphasizing subtle tonal variations in the fabric and skin. The warm palette—rich reds and earth tones—enhances the sitter’s presence, while the soft modeling of light creates a gentle three‑dimensionality. The painting’s compositional balance and emotive focus align it with the Romantic movement’s interest in individual feeling.
History & Provenance
Created circa 1833, the portrait entered the American art market during Ingham’s active years in New York, where he was known for society portraits. Documentation of its ownership trail is limited, but the work has been referenced in catalogues of Ingham’s oeuvre and remains a representative example of his early‑mid‑19th‑century output.
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