Today Russell is remembered for the fine Adam-style house he constructed on Meeting Street 1809-1811. A native of Rhode Island, Russell came to Charleston as a young man and became a successful merchant. One of the founders and key moving spirits of the St. Andrew's Society, he served as its first president.
The first entry listed in Fraser's account book, this miniature heralded Fraser's professionalism. A penetrating likeness of the eighty-year old Russell, it attests to Fraser's skill at character analysis. Frederick A. Porcher, a contemporary, recognized that "if his subject was an old man or woman his likenesses were very felicitous."
Notes:
This text is adapted from Martha Severens "The Miniature Portrait Collection of the Carolina Art Association" published by the Carolina Art Association, 1984
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