Robert A. Taylor, Jr. of Baltimore

Almost waist-length portrait of Robert A. Taylor, with head three-quarters to the left, with light curly brown hair parted at left side, and a small chin beard. He wears a black coat with white shirt and white collar.

Robert A. Taylor was the son of William Wallace Taylor Jr. and Catharine Augusta Birckhead (see WAM 38.480 and WAM 38.481 by the same artist). His father was the Director of the Union Bank of Maryland and was also linked with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and many other local businesses. The family lived in 7 West Mount Vernon Place, making them the neighbours of the Walters family who lived at 5 West. (For more information see "History of Baltimore Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1792-1898").

Robert was involved in numerous local businesses, and was also a Justice of the Peace. In 1858 he married Mary Maught, from a landowning and milling family from Frederick County, MD. (For more information see "History of Baltimore Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1792-1898").

Born in Leeds, England, and trained in an architect's office, Richard Morrell Staigg came to the United States in 1831. Washington Allston encouraged him and he soon devoted himself to miniature painting. He was a regular exhibitor at the National Academy of Design, New York City, of which he was elected an associate in 1856, and an academician in 1861. In the last two decades of his life he devoted himself to portraits, landscapes and genre scenes in oil.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Acquired by Abraham Jay Fink, Baltimore; A. J. Fink Foundation, Inc., Baltimore; given to Walters Art Museum, 1963.