Technical Notes
The painting’s primary support is a plain-weave canvas with an average of twelve threads per centimeter. Cusping is visible along all the edges. The tacking edges have been removed. The white ground is evenly applied in moderate thickness and does not hide the canvas weave. The canvas is attached to a keyable wooden stretcher with mitered mortise-and-tenon corners. The wood appears to be a softwood. It is uncertain if the stretcher is the painting’s original auxiliary support or if it was added during a treatment done in 1860. Cross members were added in 1972.

In general, the painting is thinly painted with a slight amount of impasto on the sleeve and collar ruffles, the lace on the collar, the buttons, the shoe buckles, and the hat tassel. Semitransparent glazes were used in the shadow areas of the red jacket and in rendering the appearance of the finished wooden furniture. Most of the figure appears to have been painted before the finishing details of the chair, table, curtain, and background were applied. In some spots, the browns and tans of the background slightly overlap with edges of the figure, chair, and table. The brown paint of the table overlaps edges of the shirtsleeve. The white paint of the sleeve overlaps the red paint of the jacket, and the white of the collar overlaps the red of the coat and vest.

Earl slightly adjusted the contours of the figure in a few spots: the top and bottom of the sitter’s proper right coat sleeve, the coattails, and the sitter’s left hand. Fading appears to have occurred along the page edges of the open book.

There are three large tears at the left elbow that extend into the background, across the sleeve, and into the back of the coat. A tear in the area of the right cheek extends across the tip of the nose. A large, branched tear to the right of the sitter’s head starts at the sitter’s collar and extends up into the background. Another large tear appears in the upper-left background. A marked deformation, located 6.35 centimeters up from the bottom edge, runs horizontally from one side of the canvas to the other. There is a branched tear in the area of the chair legs at the bottom right of the chair. Finally, there is an L-shaped tear on the sitter’s right calf.

A slight flattening of impasto probably is the result of past lining treatments. The paint surface has some overall abrasion, particularly in the thinly applied red areas. It is also likely that original glazes on the flesh are now lost due to over-cleaning. The large losses along the outer edge of the bottom and right sides have been repainted. There are numerous small, scattered losses that have been inpainted, particularly on the upper right of the head and on the red jacket. Wider cracks on the hands also have been inpainted.

According to conservation records, the current surface coatings consist of a brushed damar varnish, followed by a sprayed application of Lucite 46. These two coatings were applied in 1976. A brush coat and spray coat of Winton Semi-matte Picture Varnish (polycyclohexanone) were applied on top of these coatings in a 1989 treatment. The varnish appears to be in good condition, with no noticeable yellowing.

Frame Notes
The frame is of the same construction as that used for the painting’s companion piece, Mary Ann Carpenter (Mrs. Thompson Forster). The main frame body consists of two parts: front pieces with mitered corners; and back pieces with butt-joined corners. The frame is gilded, and there is a wooden strip of beaded half-round ornament between a thin cove at the sight edge and a deep, plain central cove. There is an applied carved wooden strip of ribbed ornament on the outer edge. The back panel is finished with yellow bole and not gilded. Gilded areas, however, seem to show a dark bole. The simple straight style is typical of neoclassical frames.