Portrait of Carrie Elizabeth Winder McGavock

  • Creator: Washington Bogart Cooper
  • Title: Portrait of Carrie Elizabeth Winder McGavock
  • Date: 1848
  • Description: This portrait depicts a young dark-haired woman in an off the shoulder dress with lace sleeves seated in front of a red curtain and next to a round marble-topped table. The partial signature of the artist (B. Cooper) can be seen on the table's curved side.
  • Historical Note: It is possible that this portrait was done to commemorate the marriage of Carrie Winder to John McGavock in 1848. Their plantation home, Carnton, on the outskirts of Franklin, Tennessee, was used as a hospital after the Battle of Franklin on 30 November 1864. Carrie McGavock not only oversaw the care of the wounded in and around her house, she was responsible for making sure that nearly 1500 Confederates were reinterred in a cemetery on the McGavock property. She has been immortalized in a fictional portrayal, The Widow of the South, by author Robert Hicks. This is a fine example of the work of Washington Cooper (1802-1888), who was probably Nashville's most prolific antebellum portraitist.
  • Institution: Carnton / Battle of Franklin Trust
  • Publisher: Digital Initiatives, James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University
  • Rights: Images reproduced on this website are intended for individual, educational use only. For research inquiries about specific objects or requests for high resolution images, contact Carnton / Battle of Franklin Trust.
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