Mrs. Daniel DeSaussure Bacot

Artist: Samuel F. B. Morse (American, 1791–1872)

Original Dimensions: 30" x 24 3/4"

Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

About Artwork: (ca. 1820) "Little is known about Eliza McKeever Ferguson (1796–1829) who married Daniel de Saussure Bacot (1798–1839) and had six children by him. She was the second daughter of William Cattell Ferguson and Elizabeth Milner Colcock who were married in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1792. Her husband was an officer of the Bank of South Carolina for several years. The Charleston directory for 1829 lists him as a "teller" and gives his address as 11 Lamboll Street. After the death of his wife in 1829, he moved to New Orleans, but later returned to Charleston and died there. This picture was painted during one of the artist's visits to Charleston during the winters from 1818 to 1821. Family tradition says that it was executed in 1820 when Morse also painted a portrait of Mrs. Bacot's grandmother, Mrs. John Colcock II. Morse's European training is evident in his painterly execution and in his awareness of contemporary French portraiture in the style popularized by the students of Jacques Louis David." - (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)