Caroline Boies Ely (1825 or 1826-1904) was the daughter of Justus Boies of Northampton, Massachusetts. During her youth she met many prominent figures and wrote reminiscences of Rufus Choate and Daniel Webster. In 1848 she married George Byron Ely (1826-1886) and in 1851 they moved to Hanesville, Wisconsin, where he established a law practice and was later elected district attorney. In 1861, as captain, he raised a company that formed part of the Iron Brigade; he left the army with the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel. Appointed paymaster during the Civil War by President Abraham Lincoln, he and his family moved to Washington, D.C., where Mrs. Ely is known to have visited the wounded in the hospitals. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War Mrs. Ely wrote an article protesting it, recalling the horrors of war she had known. Her son, Arthur H. Ely, was an attorney, and her three daughters, including Elizabeth L. Ely, who bequeathed the portrait to the museum, founded the distinguished Misses Ely’s School, last located in Greenwich, Connecticut (LACMA, American Art department files, Mr. William F. McChesney to LACMA, August 18, 1973).
The frontal, seated pose, originally reserved for royalty, is one Chase frequently used, especially for women. The chair is probably one of the several armchairs of seventeenth century Spanish design to be found in his elaborately furnished studio. The choice of a highnecked, black dress and a white head-covering enhances the sense of a period portrait.