Portrait of Mrs. Thomas Leaming, Jr. (nee Rebecca Fisher) (1757-1833). Oil on canvas, initialed lower left and dated 1832. In a fine gold matched corner frame with name tag, OS: 42" x 37 1/2", SS: 29 11/2" x 24 1/2", laid to board, cleaned and retouched.Includes a 1991 letter of authentication and appraisal of $75,000 from W. Andrews Newman III of Newman Galleries, Philadelphia, PA. Quotes old label verso "Mrs. Thomas Leaming" (1757-1853). Was Rebecca Fisher. Portrait painted for her daughter, Lydia Leaming, who married James S. Smith. Begun March 6th, 1832. Finished April 5, 1832. Bust, seated, with lace cap and ruff, white lambswool boa over shoulders. Signed "TS, 1832".Thomas Leaming, Jr. (1748-1797) of Philadelphia, was a patriot and privateer, taking 50 prize vessels and over 1,000 British sailors prisoner for exchange.Rebecca Fisher at the age of 20 smuggled gold doubloons into Philadephia to sustain her family, when stopped by British sentries she confidently used the name of an officer whose name she had overheard, and when he presented himself, she convinced him to escort her to her home as it was getting dark. This portrait was made by Sully when she was elderly, a few years after she lost her husband. Remarkably we also have the bonnet she is wearing in the portrait.Leaming was a member of the fifth session (June–August 1776) of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey which ordered the arrest of the colony's last royal governor William Franklin (Ben Franklin's son), approved the Declaration of Independence and wrote New Jersey's first state constitution (1776).