Technical Notes
The support is a plain-weave canvas with an average of eleven threads per centimeter in both directions. There is marked cusping along the edges and numerous tears and punctures throughout the painting. The tacking edges of the original canvas have been cut off.

The white ground layer does not hide the texture of the canvas and does not completely extend to the edges of the design area. Areas of damage suggest that Blackburn applied a layer of gray imprimatura to the surface of the ground.

In general, the paint is thinly applied. Passages of thicker paint occur in the lighter areas, and slight impasto is visible in the feathers of the fan and highlights of the jewelry. Numerous small losses of paint, mostly around the edge, have been filled and inpainted. A stain pattern, corresponding to the canvas weave, is now visible through the thinner paint.

The entire paint surface has extensive abrasion, particularly in the flesh areas. The surface has a slight weave emphasis throughout, and the minimal impasto has been somewhat flattened; both conditions are probably the result of past lining treatments.

In 1982 a glue lining was removed and replaced with a wax resin onto a linen lining; and the painting was cleaned and varnished with Winton Picture Varnish, followed by a spray coat of Acryloid B-72.

Frame Notes
The frame consists of a carved and gilded softwood molding. The inner edge has chip-carved foliate ornament, followed by a pebbled band and a wide outer section with an ogee profile and shallow carved foliate-and-scroll ornament. The frame also has carved corner straps. There is a thin band of foliate design on the upper edge of the back panel. Hand-forged nails are visible at the corners, where the gesso layer has fallen off.

The frame is very similar to the ones on John Singleton Copley’s John Bours and on Joseph Badger’s portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Waldo.