Elisabeth Has Haley

Elisabeth Has Haley

Unidentified Artist France
circa 1810
Oil on canvas 75.189.2
Gift of Sarah H. Hawkes Thornton

Some symbols of power remained consistent from the 18th into the 19th century. One in particular was the use of wild or exotic animals to suggest the sitter’s ability to control any situation, including controlling nature. Here, Elisabeth Haley is seated, commanding the viewer’s gaze with her own while enticing a parrot with food. Birds, squirrels, and other wild animals, as well as enslaved Blacks were commonly used as symbols to show the sitter’s ability to control.