Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2011.

The May Queen (The Crowning of Flora)

Artist Jacob Marling (American, 1774 - 1833)

CultureAmerican

Date1816

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 30 1/8 x 39 1/8 in. (76.5 x 99.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 34 3/8 x 43 1/2 x 3 in. (87.3 x 110.5 x 7.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch

Object number80.181.20

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 209

DescriptionThis oil on canvas painting depicts a May Day pageant performed by the female pupils of the Raleigh Academy. Young ladies are gathered beneath trees; a building is in the background. A young woman sits at a piano with a few women standing beside the instrument in the background. Right from the center, a man holds a brass oboe.

Label TextJacob Marling American, 1774—1833 The May Queen (The Crowning of Flora), 1816 Oil on canvas This boisterous scene captures students at the Raleigh Academy in North Carolina on May Day celebrating a yearly rite of spring, the "Crowning of Flora," the goddess of flowers. Before the advent of public education in the South, girls from well-to-do families were taught at home by tutors or sent to private schools like the Raleigh Academy. There they were taught an array of subjects, from reading, writing, needlework, and music-making to more advanced academic disciplines such as astronomy and philosophy. Marling included a number of individual portraits in the painting. Among them is his own, in profile at right, as well as two local architectural landmarks. The red brick building with impressive double portico is the city's new bank, and the cupola of the North Carolina statehouse is visible above the trees on the right. Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch 80.181.20 ProvenanceLouisa Marling, Raleigh, N.C.; her estate, after 1865, as _The May Queen_; private collection, Petersburg, Va.; Old Print Shop, New York, by 1943, as _Young Ladies Seminary in Virginia_; Harry Shaw Newman Gallery, New York, by 1946; Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1948; Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch to the Chrysler Museum, 1980. Exhibition History"Nineteenth Century Virginia Genre," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Va., January 17 - February 13, 1946. (Exh. cat. no. 80, as _Young Ladies Seminary_). "The Art of Music, American Paintings & Musical Instruments, 1770-1910," Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., April 7 - June 3, 1984; Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, N.Y., July 19 - September 19, 1984; Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, N.C., October 1 - November 5, 1984; The Lamont Gallery, Philips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N.H., November 18 - December 16, 1984. (Exh. cat. no. 3, as _A Ceremonial at a Young Ladies' Seminary_). "Classical Taste in America, 1800-1840," Baltimore Museum of Art, Md., June 27 - September 26, 1993; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, N.C., November 30, 1993 - March 13, 1994; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tex., May 1 - July 24, 1994. (Exh. cat. no. 204) "North Carolina Women Making History," North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, N.C., March 1 - August 15, 1995. "Tales from the Easel: American Narrative Paintings from Southeastern Museums, circa 1800-1950," The Columbus Museum, Columbus, Ga., February 8 - April 11, 2004; Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Fla., April 25 - July 11, 2004; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Ky., September 14 - December 12, 2004; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Tex., January 16 - April 10, 2005. "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Large Changing Gallery, October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. "Grand Reopening of the North Carolina Museum of Art," North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, March 4, 2010 - March 3, 2011. "American Treasures at the Willoughby-Baylor House," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 2 - December 1, 2013. "The Instruction of Young Ladies: Arts from Private Girls’ Schools and Academies in Early America," Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY, September 24 - December 31, 2016. Exhibition in the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts permanent collection galleries, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, September 2019 - June 2020.Published References"The Crowning of Flora," _Lynchburg Echo_ July 10, 1816. Marshall DeLancey Haywood, "Jacob Marling, an Early North Carolina Artist," in The North Carolina Booklet (Raleigh, 1910), 199. "Young Ladies Seminary in Virginia - Artist Unknown. 1810-20," The Old Print Shop _Portfolio_ (October 1943): 34-38. "Shop Talk: New Gallery of American Painting," _The Magazine Antiques_ 44 (November 1943): 212. Edward M. Davis, III, _Nineteenth Century Virginia Genre_, exh. cat., The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Va., 1946, 15, 19, no. 80. Harry Shaw Newman Gallery _Panorama_ (April 1946): 29. James Thomas Flexner, "Early Nineteenth-Century American Genre," _The Magazine Antiques_ 66 (September 1954): 197, 199. James Thomas Flexner, _History of American Painting, Volume Two: 1760-1835, The Light of Distant Skies_ (New York: Dover Publications, 1954, 1969), 196, plate 81. Ben F. Williams, _Jacob Marling: Retrospective Exhibition_, exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, N.C., 1964, 10. Mary Black and Jean Lipman, _American Folk Painting_ (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1966), 208, fig. 186. H. Nichols B. Clark, "American Musical Paintings, 1770-1865," _The Art of Music, American Paintings & Musical Instruments 1770-1910_, exh. cat., Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Clinton, N.Y., 1984, 42-43, cover ill., no. 3. Parke Rouse, Jr., _The World and its People: Virginia History and Geography_ (Morristown, N.J.: Silver Burdett & Ginn, 1985), 199. Gary B. Nash and Cynthia J. Shelton, eds., _The Private Side of American History: Readings in Everyday Life_, vol. 1 to 1877 (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987), 198. _The Story of America Past: Abolition and Women's Rights_, 30 min., KRMA-TV, Denver, Colo., 1988, videocassette. Davida Deutsch, "The Crowning of Flora: Mr. Marling and Ladies Identified," _The Luminary_ 9 (Summer 1988): 3-4. Davida Deutsch, "The Polite Lady: Portraits of American Schoolgirls and their Accomplishments, 1725-1830," _The Magazine Antiques_ 135 (Mar. 1989): 744. James Kirby Martin et al., _America and its People_ (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1989), 187. Kathryn Kish Sklar and Thomas Dublin, eds., _Women and Power in American History: A Reader_, vol. 1 to 1880 (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1991), 200. Jefferson C. Harrison, _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: The Chrysler Museum, 1991), 88-89, no. 66. Elizabeth Culbertson Waugh, et al., _North Carolina's Capital, Raleigh_ (Raleigh, N.C., 1992), 36-37. Wendy A. Cooper, _Classical Taste in America, 1800-1840_, exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art, Md., 1993, 253-254, no. 204. Betty Ring, _Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers and Pictorial Needlework, 1650-1850_, vol. 2 (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1993), 538, 541, fig. 601. J. Christian Kolbe and Lyndon H. Hart III, "The Virginia Career of Jacob Marling," _Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts_ 22, no. 1 (Summer 1996): 91, 92, fig. 1. Cynthia Kierner, _Beyond the Household: Women's Place in the Early South, 1700-1835_ (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), 150, 158-159. Gary B. Nash et al., _The American People_ 4th ed. (New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1998), 299. "Index of Early Southern Artists and Artisans," _Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts_ 25, no. 2 (Winter 1999): 99. Anya Jabour, "Albums of Affection: Female Friendship and Coming of Age in Antebellum Virginia," _The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography_ 107, no. 2 (March 1999): 136. Margaret Supplee Smith and Emily Herring Wilson, _North Carolina Women: Making History_ (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 88-92, fig. 4.14. James Parakilas et al., _Piano Roles: Three Hundred Years of Life with the Piano_ (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 183. Patricia Cline Cohen, "Women in the Early Republic," Organization of American Historians _Magazine of History_ 14, no. 2 (Winter 2000): 8. _The American Story: Who, What, When, Where, Why of our Nation's Heritage_ (Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader's Digest Assoc., 2000): 116. William Underwood Eiland, "American Narrative Paintings, circa 1800 - 1950," _American Art Review_ XVI, No. 1 (January/February 2004): 138-151. Charles C. Eldredge, _Tales from the Easel: American Narrative Paintings from Southeastern Museums, circa 1800-1950_, exh. cat., Southeastern Art Museum Directors Consortium, Columbus Museum, Ga., 2004, 154-155, no. 43. 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), 34-35, no. 12. Lindal Buchanan, _Regendering Delivery: The Fifth Canon and Antebellum Women Rhetors_ (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005), 43, fig. 2.1. Gary B. Nash and Julie Roy Jeffrey, eds., _The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society_ Brief Fifth Edition (New York: Pearson Longman, 2006), 263. Annenberg Media, _America's History in the Making_, Portland, Oregon, Oregon Public Broadcasting Educational Media Department, 2007: DVD, Disc 2. Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 58, fig. 57. Kimberly S. Alexander, "Myra Montgomery's World: Haverhill, Boston, and Beyond," _Historical New Hampshire_ 67 (2013): 3-16. Robert Shaw and Jane Katcher, _The Instruction of Young Ladies: Arts from Private Girls' Schools and Academies in Early America_, (Cooperstown: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016), 60, cat.no.23.