Molly Wales Fobes

The portrait features Molly Wales Fobes seated formally in a Chippendale-style chair, adorned in fashionable attire. Her French-inspired coiffure, embellished with large ostrich feathers, a rose-decorated fan, and floral bodice details, conveys a sense of sophistication. Arranged around her are a cat, two birds, and a pair of moths, forming an almost emblematic composition.

These creatures likely symbolize beauty, loyalty, and affection, potentially also referencing her father's profession as a professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy.

Hathaway, who had no documented artistic training and is believed to have been self-taught, possibly after working as a ship-carver or decorative specialist, demonstrates a distinctive style in this early work. The painting exhibits flattened spatial rendering, bold patterns, and details that are both naive and keenly observed. Hathaway's approach suggests an interpretation of European print conventions and the influence of sophisticated portraitists like John Singleton Copley, translated into a unique provincial American folk idiom.

This portrait holds significance as Rufus Hathaway's earliest known work, painted in 1790. Its journey into a major institutional collection culminated in 1963 when The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired it. The painting was a generous gift from Colonel Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, renowned collectors whose contributions were instrumental in building the museum's holdings of American folk art.