Photographed by Scott Wolff. Scanned from a slide. Color corrected by Pat Cagney.

Mary Chew Elliott

Artist Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741-1827)

CultureAmerican

Date1787

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions36 1/8 x 27 1/2 in. (91.8 x 69.9 cm)
Overall, Frame: 43 x 34 x 3 1/2 in. (109.2 x 86.4 x 8.9 cm)

InscribedSigned and dated left center: Peale Pinxit 1787

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Frank Batten

Object number63.112.1

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 209

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas, half-length portrait of an older woman wearing a bonnet and patterned cashmere shawl. She holds gold-rimmed spectacles in her right hand and a case for them in her left. A book with rests on the table beside her; lettering on the spine spells _Harvy's Meditatio_.

Label TextCharles Willson Peale American, 1741—1827 Mary Chew Elliott, 1787 Oil on canvas Mary O’Donnell, 1791 Oil on canvas Sarah Chew Elliott O’Donnell, 1787 Oil on canvas This group of portraits depicts three generations of women from the same wealthy Baltimore family in a manner that highlights both their elevated social status and embodiment of ideal virtues ascribed to upper-class women in eighteenth-century America. While the elder Mary Chew Elliot appears restrained in an elegant but simple domestic setting, her daughter Sarah O’Donnell’s portrait signals her worldly sophistication by including a neoclassical backdrop, reminiscent of British portraiture. Meanwhile, the young Mary O’Donnell grasps a pair of cherries, a common symbol of youthful innocence, while an opulent teething rattle made of coral and gold dangles from her sash. Gifts of Mrs. Frank Batten 63.112.1, 61.91.1, and 62.94.1 ProvenanceDescended in the family to the eldest daughter in each generation: Lila (or Eliza) Berrett George Parke, Norfolk, 1911 or 1912; her daughter, Mary Eugenia Parke; her niece, Jane Neal Parke Batten (Mrs. Frank Batten); Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, 1963. (The Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences became the Chrysler Museum in 1971.) Exhibition HistoryNational Collection of Fine Arts at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1917-1945. [The collection that now makes up the Smithsonian American Art Museum was called the National Gallery of Art from 1905 to 1937, the National Collection of Fine Arts until 1980, and the National Museum of American Art after 1980.] Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, Norfolk, Va., 1945-1971. "Treasures from the Norfolk Museum," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Va., January 16 - 22, 1962. "American Painting: Gilbert Stuart - George Bellows," Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., November 18 - December 31, 1972. "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. (Exh. cat. p. 84) "Woman," Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Ill., February 21 - April 22, 1984. Exh. cat. no. 3. "Can-ton: The Baltimore Series," Peale Museum, Baltimore, Md., March 19 - September 3, 1995. "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. Published ReferencesCharles Coleman Sellers, "Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale," _Transactions of the American Philosophical Society_ 42, part 1 (1952): 73, fig. 183, no. 245. George H. Tucker, "Peale Portrait Trio Unique," _Virginian-Pilot_ (Sunday, April 18, 1965): C3. Eloise Spaeth, _American Art Museums: An Introduction to Looking_ (New York: McGraw Hill, 1969), 165-166. "American Painting: Gilbert Stuart - George Bellows, Nov. 18 - Dec. 31," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk _Bulletin_ 1 (Dec. 1972): cover ill. Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 84. Linda Nochlin, _Woman_, exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Ill., 1984, 6, 13, no. 3. Lillian B. Miller et al., editors, _The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and his Family_, vol. 5, _The Autobiography of Charles Willson Peale_ (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 117-118, 120. ISBN: 0300075472 Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 26-27, no. 4. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6