Lot 580: James F. Wilkins

James F. Wilkins Missouri (1808-88) PORTRAIT OF MISSOURI & VIRGINIA CHASE oil on canvas, framed signed: lower left H43 7/8" W35 3/8" *Note: Missouri and Virginia Chase were the nieces of Salmon Portland Chase, Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln. There also is a portrait by James F. Wilkins of the girls' mother, Mrs. William Frederick Chase of St. Louis, Missouri, 1847, in the collection of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. This portrait was painted during the same period along with a portrait of Mr. William Frederick Chase, which was destroyed in Lockport, NY. Keeping slaves was very much against the religious principles of Mrs. William Chase, who commissioned and paid for all three portraits by selling all of her slaves for fifteen hundred dollars while her husband was in Washington, DC on business. There is a clear provenance of these paintings accompanying the work. *Artist biography: James F. Wilkins was born in London, England and studied and exhibited works at the Royal Academy before coming to the United States. He was a resident of Peoria, IL in 1837, worked in New Orleans from 1842-43, and settled in St. Louis as early as 1844. In 1849, he went to California in a wagon train, producing many gold mining scenes and sketches of the Overland Trail. In 1850, he created a large panorama, "Overland Route to California." Upon returning to St. Louis, where he spent the remainder of his life, he returned to portraiture.