Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis (Mrs. Lawrence Lewis)

Executed in oil on canvas, the portrait measures 73.7 by 61.6 centimeters and is classified as a painting in the portrait genre. The work was produced by Gilbert Stuart in 1804, employing the oil medium on a canvas support consistent with Stuart's established practice for formal portrait commissions of the period. The sitter, Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis, is the sole named subject depicted. No specific information regarding handling, surface condition, or detailed stylistic analysis is documented in the available sources.

Gilbert Stuart executed this oil-on-canvas portrait of Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis in 1804. Upon completion, the sitter retained ownership until 1836, when she gifted the work to her son, Lorenzo Lewis, as confirmed by an inscription on the stretcher. Following Lorenzo's death, the painting passed to his widow, Esther Maria Coxe Lewis, for her lifetime.

After Esther died in 1885, the portrait was distributed among their six sons via a lottery system in autumn 1888; Edward Parke Custis Lewis secured the work through this drawing. The painting subsequently descended through Edward's son, Edwin Augustus Stevens Lewis, and then to Edwin's widow, Alice Stuart Walker Lewis. Upon Alice's death in 1973, their son, H. H. Walker Lewis, inherited the piece before donating it to the National Gallery of Art in 1974.

The portrait is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It entered the museum's holdings in 1974 as a gift from H. H. Walker Lewis of Baltimore. Prior to this acquisition, the work remained within the sitter's family for over a century, passing from Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis to her son Lorenzo, and subsequently through generations of descendants including Edward Parke Custis Lewis and Alice Stuart Walker Lewis. The division of the artwork among heirs occurred in 1888 following the death of Esther Maria Coxe Lewis, with Edward Parke Custis Lewis securing the piece by lot.

While the painting's ownership lineage is well-documented from 1836 to its 1974 donation, the provided records do not list specific public exhibitions or assign a distinct accession number.

The 1804 portrait by Gilbert Stuart of Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis entered the National Gallery of Art collection through a 1974 gift, tracing its ownership from the sitter to her son Lorenzo Lewis and subsequent descendants, a lineage documented in family records and correspondence. Its inclusion in the Gallery’s holdings has contributed to renewed scholarly attention on early American portraiture and the cultural legacy of the Custis‑Lewis family, underscoring the work’s significance as both a historical document and a representative example of Stuart’s mature style.

Gilbert Stuart's 1804 oil on canvas portrait, "Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis (Mrs. Lawrence Lewis)," captures the likeness of its distinguished subject. The painting presents a woman seated, adorned in elaborate attire and a hat, with notable attention given to the intricacies of her clothing and the chair she occupies. This work exemplifies Stuart's approach to portraiture.