Technical Notes
The painting's primary support is a finely woven plain-weave canvas with an average of sixteen threads per centimeter vertically and fifteen threads per centimeter horizontally. The tacking edges are no longer extant. X-radiographs of the painting show very slight cusping along the edges of the canvas. In 1917 the canvas was adhered to a cardboard support with an aqueous adhesive. In 1949 strips of linen gauze were adhered to the back of the cardboard with wax-resin adhesive. Also at that time, a cradle of wooden strips was added, then covered with linen gauze and toned with dark pigment.

The white ground layer is moderately thick and does not hide the texture of the canvas. The paint was applied in mostly large areas of local opaque color, with some glazing in the shadows of the green coat. In general, the artist worked from dark to light. Finer details, such as the hair and the highlights of the buttons, were added wet-on-dry. Overlapping paint indicates that a final dark brown layer was applied to the background after the sitter and chair were largely completed. Pentimenti within the centers of the large buttons on the coat indicate that the buttons were originally painted smaller.

Low impasto on some of the highlights has been flattened slightly, probably as a result of past lining treatments. The painting was last cleaned in 1984 and coated with Winton Picture Varnish.

Frame Notes
The frame molding is made of a single piece of gilded softwood. The corners are mitered. The molding has a narrow cove at the sight edge, followed by a narrow band of beading and a large central cove. The central cove rises to the outer edge, which has a carved ribbed bead. The bole is yellow. Hand-forged nails are visible at the corners of the frame.

A matching frame is found on Gullager's portrait Elizabeth Sewall Salisbury (Mrs. Samuel Salisbury) (1789, Worcester Art Museum).