Jean Francois De Vallee

Jean Francois De Vallée emigrated from France to open a cotton mill in Virginia. When that plan failed, he became a painter of miniatures, working in Philadelphia, Charleston, New Orleans, and Boston between 1794 and 1828. American patrons in this period were less interested in a painter's style than in his ability to capture the features of his sitters. Accordingly, De Vallée advertised himself in Charleston in 1803 as a painter who produced the "most correct likeness." (Martha R. Severns, The Miniature Portrait Collection of the Carolina Art Association, 1984)