Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2014.

Mary Howitt

Artist Margaret Foley (American, 1827 - 1877)

CultureAmerican

Date1875

MediumCarrara marble

Dimensions2 x 23 in. (5.1 x 58.4 cm)

SignedUnder shoulder truncation at lower right: "MARGARET FOLEY. SC. ROMA 1875"

InscribedEmbossed inscription on carved marble frame: "MARY HOWITT." Brooch incised: "ROMA."

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number2013.11

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 213

Label TextMargaret Foley American, 1827–1877 Mary Howitt, 1875 Marble An abundance of detail brings visual energy to Margaret Foley’s medallion portrait of her friend, the English poet Mary Howitt (1799–1888). Self-taught in the art of carving, Foley received high praise for the sensitivity of her relief sculptures, and she exhibited this plaque in the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Its complicated workmanship, particularly in the lace shawl, demonstrates a shift in sculptural taste away from the smooth lines of Neoclassicism in favor of complexity and pattern. Like other talented American women, Foley moved to Italy for greater professional and social freedom. Here she included the word ROMA both in the signature and on the sitter’s necklace. Museum purchase 2013.11 ProvenanceProperty of artist; acquired by Shepherd W & K Galleries, New York, NY,1989; purchased by Chrysler Museum of Art from Shepherd Galleries, New York, NY, September 2013.Exhibition HistoryCentennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, PA, 1876 Royal Academy, London, 1876, cat. no. 1348 Shepherd Gallery, NYC, "European Nineteenth Century Watercolors, Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture," Winter 1989/90, cat. no. 39, ill. Shepherd Gallery, NYC, "Viewpoints: European Sculpture, 1875-1925," Fall 1991, cat. no. 26, p. 72-73, ill. National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, 2003-12 (long-term loan) Published ReferencesRoyal Academy, London, 1876, cat. no. 1348 Shepherd Gallery, _European Nineteenth Century Watercolors, Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture_ (New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1989) cat. no. 39, ill. Tufts, Eleanor, “Margaret Foley’s Metamorphosis: A Merrimack ‘Female Operative’ in Neo-Classical Rome,” _Arts Magazine_ (January 1982), pp. 88-95. Shepherd Gallery, _Viewpoints: European Sculpture, 1875-1925_ (New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1991) p. 72-73, ill.