Prologue
To Octavia
When wit, and wine, and friends have met
And laughter crowns the festive hour
In vain I struggle to forget
Still does my heart confess thy power
And fondly turn to thee!
But Octavia, do not strive to rob
My heart, of all that soothes its pain
The mournful hope that every throb
Will make it break for thee!1
A great mystery to modern minds arises when visiting the back parlors at Oakleigh Place in Mobile, Alabama. It is not unusual to see old paintings and portraits in centenarian houses in this city, but artists whose work continues to draw the eye rise above the norm. One such artist was Thomas Sully, and his subject for the painting was Miss Octavia Walton of Pensacola, Florida.
Boucher, Jack. Oakleigh, House & Slave Quarters, 350 Oakleigh Place, Mobile, Mobile County, AL. Photograph. Washington, D.C., 1933. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print.
When you learn Sully and Miss Walton’s stories, one cannot help but wonder how the painting got there.2 Octavia entered the world while the United States was still determining what kind of country it was to become. This painting was the start of her influence, her official introduction to Society as a young woman entering adulthood, and Sully had the honor of capturing it.
In Miss Walton’s portrait, she dressed in a shimmering pink silk gown that powerfully attracts the eye across the open room, distracting the viewer from the surrounding antiques. The shift appears expensive and well-made, perhaps by the hands of Chloe, her grandmother’s slave. Another set of skilled hands might have helped, and they belonged to Betsey Walton, possibly Chloe’s granddaughter. She could have been there as a twelve or thirteen-year-old child, perceiving her grandmother make each careful stitch while learning her role in the Walton household. She soon began to care for the young woman to whom she would have no choice but to be a servant for most of her life.
The dress is of the finest quality and shines in the portrait, but Miss Walton is not adorned with any jewelry to indicate established family wealth or position. She was the direct descendant of George Walton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Since this rendering was in honor of her formal introduction into Society and her eligibility to wed, maybe adorning her with jewels was a responsibility that fell to the man she married.
She was a blossoming young woman at the time, a mere twenty-three years old, and it bespeaks her power as only the famous portrait artist Thomas Sully could do. Sully titled the work “Miss Walton of Pensacola,”3 but he already had a reputation for painting those figures in history, Thomas Jefferson, for example, who molded the United States’ early years. Why else could Octavia have a portrait made by such an esteemed artist? Like George Washington and Andrew Jackson, and other Sully subjects, Octavia Walton impacted our infant country in her unique way. Her sometimes quiet and sometimes not so quiet influence would reach further than the other ladies he would paint, with one notable exception, Queen Victoria.
In many ways, Octavia, as the Queen of Society in the United States and Victoria as the Queen of England, profoundly influenced the culture in which they lived. When Octavia traveled to Europe in 1853 and visited with Queen Victoria before the American Civil War, her letters home was published in newspapers all over the country. Readers were in awe of how Octavia handled herself in the British Court, speaking to each foreign dignitary in their native language.
Things of the past often bespeak things of the present, and there has always been a power in placing things where they belong. However, the efforts made by Historic Mobile Preservation Society to bring home to Oakleigh the LeVert collection, which included the painting by Thomas Sully, cannot be overstated. Indeed, Octavia did not have a close relationship with the Roper family or the Irwin family, owners of Oakleigh during her time in the city; still, this fine old home was the best place to house her memories. Octavia Walton LeVert needed to be back in Mobile, where she ruled as queen of its Society for many years, despite her dramatic exit from the city.
A 1953 Mobile Press-Register article opens the story of the portrait’s return to Mobile, “According to Caldwell Delaney, Mobile Historian and a member of the Historic Society, who unearthed the treasures in a cluttered old house in Kansas City after detective work which took him into several states and over several years, these things were just the cream of a crop of other LeVert relics which included valuable personal papers and the portrait of Edwin Booth which the actor said he liked best.”4
Only when the niece of an admirer who built the collection died were arrangements for the sale. Correspondence between Mrs. Lucile L. Ghormley, who inherited the priceless items and lacked the proper facilities to care for or display them in her home, and Mrs. John F. Lyle, then president of Historical Mobile Preservation Society (HMPS), showed great insight and stated, “these things belong in Mobile.”5 While the Sully portrait was the most valuable piece in the collection, included in the bundle of items was the portrait of Octavia’s mother, Sally Walton, by Rembrandt Peale, and the woman responsible for educating the Octavia known today. The collection included two silver Christening mugs and three miniatures of Octavia and her two surviving daughters, plus the small black inlaid writing desk Octavia used to write her famous book, Souvenirs of Travel. In 1954, these items were returned, and a part of Madame Octavia Walton LeVert finally was in the city where she had once spent the majority of her years.
The Thomas Sully painting is the most substantial piece in the bundle and is rather large and looming. Like all portraitists, Sully charged his clients based on the size of the work. The painting’s size indicates Octavia had some wealth at the time, possibly the money she inherited from her grandmother, Dorothy Walton’s recent death. Despite the painting’s massiveness, in reality, Octavia was a very petite woman. One may surmise she was sitting on a stool since she gave an even stare to the painter. A writer’s observation, but in discovering the hidden messages all too common with these sorts of paintings, it seems Sully’s focus was not upon his subject’s hair or dress but on her eyes. He seems to make her eyes the direction of the work; they are almost piercing; their gaze hints of the brilliant mind within.
There are other points the viewer can easily see through a further study of the painting. The subject does not appear formal but rather casual. The Spanish guitar she is holding indicates an ability to play the instrument, but she is not strumming; perhaps she was not a professional player. She is sitting as if away from the painter, not upfront. The young Miss Octavia Celestie Valentine Walton sat on a simple red chair. She appears relaxed amongst a great countryside, possibly Saratoga Springs or a close approximation by Sully, complete with a large oak tree and an expanse of water behind. In reality, she was enduring a rather chilly 1833 Washington D.C. winter, and she spent those days either in Sully’s studio or at the gallery at Congress.6
However, do not be distracted from the lack of authenticity that surrounded her. Instead, it would be best if you took in the brightness of the light that shines on her face, her luminous white skin tones, the soft curve of her body, sloping shoulders, and small waist. She displays a perfect complexion from the peak of her head to the curve of her shoulder. She was the focus of the painting, and she revealed a unique yet straightforward smile. She was intelligent, and it shined through in this work of art.
What you see was a mere reflection of what there was about her and the world she knew. Yet during her life, it was effortless to discover her because she was always in the newspapers. She was a well-known writer and the ultimate hostess at home and abroad. She was well-loved and celebrated until she was not. The Civil War changed everything, and a note from the Union commander who took over the city of Mobile would seal her fate.
She was indeed the Belle of the United States, America’s Belle, but the Civil War eliminated that version of Society forever. Octavia, her daughters, and Betsey, even, would be among the last.
Works Cited & Notes
- Edgar Allen Poe, “To Octavia,” The Edgar Allen Poe Society of Baltimore, last modified March 13, 2011.
- Note: Oakleigh House is located in Mobile, Alabama at 300 Oakleigh Place, Mobile, AL 36604. The painting is owned and maintained by the Historic Mobile Preservation Society.
- Edward Biddle and Mantle Fielding, Life and Works of Thomas Sully (1783 – 1872) (Philadelphia: Wichersham Press, 1921). Note: The title of the of the painting by Thomas Sully indicates she was not married. In addition, at the time of the painting, Florida was a very young state, and Pensacola was where her father, George Walton, Jr., was the Governor of the West Florida Territory (previous to statehood).
- Untitled Printed article located at the Minnie Mitchell Archives, Oakleigh Place, Mobile, AL. Note: The painting of Edwin Booth is located at Oakleigh.
- Correspondence from the Historic Mobile Preservation Society to Lucile L. Ghormley, January 15, 1954, Minnie Mitchell Archives, Le Vert Collection. Note: HMPS purchased the Le Vert Collection from Mrs. Ghormley for $4000.
- Elswyth Thane, Mount Vernon is Ours: The Story of its Preservation (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1966).