James Westhall Ford (ca. 1806–68), artist, was apparently born in Pennsylvania. Early in his career he traveled to Virginia, where he made TJ’s acquaintance by the summer of 1823. Ford settled around 1825 in Richmond and concentrated on portraiture, including paintings of some members of the University of Virginia faculty. Shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War, Ford’s Northern sympathies induced him to relocate to Philadelphia, where he died (Mary Givens Kane, “James Westhall Ford,” The Magazine Antiques 70 [1956]: 136–8; ViU: Ford Papers; TJ’s Letter of Recommendation for Ford, 30 Sept. 1823; Philadelphia Inquirer, 30 Dec. 1868).

After repeated applications, Martha Jefferson Randolph had finally agreed to let Ford take her likeness at the request of Charles L. Bankhead, for, presuming that the painting was intended for his wife, Randolph’s daughter Ann C. Bankhead, “She thought it impossible to refuse.” Unfortunately, the process proved to be arduous. Another daughter, Virginia J. Randolph (Trist), reported in June 1823 that “Mama has just set for her portrait; it was taken as large as life, and done by a man named Ford, not at all a painter of any celebrity, and the most tiresome little goose that ever breathed. he wearied & put her to sleep every day, & objected to our going in to the room because he said it turned her attention, I suppose, from the recollection that she was setting for her picture, and must not wink her eye, or turn her head, if she hoped to be taken as stiff as a poker! The upper part of the face was however very good, notwithstanding the man was a ‘haverel’ [i.e., one given to foolish chatter (OED)], and the lower part was like my Aunt Eppes, Mama thought, of course bore a family likeness to her.” Three months later Ford made a second portrait of Martha Jefferson Randolph. When this work was completed, Randolph (Trist) was wholly unimpressed by the depiction of her mother, commenting that “the little ideotic painter” had made “another daub of Mama at Grand-Papa’s request, and he has painted her as she might perhaps look, when recovering from a dangerous illness. I can not bear to see her thus caricatured, and am now more than ever anxious that we should possess of her a good likeness done by Mr. Sully or Mr. Petticola [i.e., Edward F. Peticolas]” (Randolph [Trist] to Nicholas P. Trist, 23 June, 17 Sept. 1823 [RCs in DLC: NPT]).

An image of one of Ford’s portraits of Martha Jefferson Randolph is reproduced elsewhere in this volume.