Portrait of Genevieve Morgan Williams

  • Creator: Thomas Waterman Wood
  • Title: Portrait of Genevieve Morgan Williams
  • Date: 1861
  • Description: This portrait depicts a small child in a blue dress, seated on a stone step with a variety of cut flowers in her lap and holding up a sprig containing three red blossoms. She is in a landscape setting with the city of Nashville (Tennessee State Capitol is visible) in the distance at far right. The painting is signed and dated on step at left.
  • Historical Note: This portrait depicts the granddaughter of Nashville industrialist Samuel Dold Morgan. Before the Civil War, Morgan was a prominent businessman and railroad booster. He chaired the Building Commission of the Tennessee State Capitol (begun 1845, completed 1859), which can be seen in background. Genevieve's father, Robert N. Williams, was a physician who owned plantation lands in Arkansas. Like two of his wife's brothers, he served in the Confederate army. Unlike his Morgan brothers-in-law, Williams survived the war. Genevieve later married a Kentuckian and lived in Lexington, KY. This painting stayed in the family until 1985 when it was sold at auction; soon afterwards it was purchased by the Tennessee State Museum. Portraitist Thomas Waterman Wood (1823-1878), who had benefited from the patronage of many of Middle Tennessee's wealthy, chose to leave Nashville soon after war broke out, moving to the officially "neutral" state of Kentucky in 1862.
  • Institution: Tennessee State Museum
  • Publisher: Digital Initiatives, James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University
Detail