John Wollaston Jr.(active 1735 to 1775)
John Wollaston was born the son of English portrait painter John Wollaston (the senior)(circa 1672 to 1749). His first firmly documented portrait was of evangelist George Whitefield (1742, engraved by John Faber).
John Wollaston Jr. came to New York from England in 1749, one of several artists introducing the American colonies to English rococo portraiture. He lived and worked in several mid-Atlantic cities, Southern cities, on plantations and visited the West Indies. He painted portraits of wealthy merchants and the local gentry. He returned to England in the spring of 1767.
Except for a chance encounter in England in 1775 with an acquaintance from the Leeward Islands, nothing is known of Wollaston after his return to England.
Information courtesy of Skinner Inc., September 2005 & Harvey Clars Auction Gallery, September 2002.