This pair of portraits by the American artist Frederick Randolph Spencer depicts a fashionable couple from New York: Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Carter, painted in 1832 and 1831, respectively. The extravagant showiness of the wife’s lace collar and over-the-top riffled bonnet is echoed in the elaborately ornamented period frame and the intricately carved Empire-style sofa on which she rests her arm.
Credit
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Mark Rogers and Raymond Rourke
