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

Mary O'Donnell

Artist Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741-1827)

CultureAmerican

Date1791

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall, Frame: 26 1/4 x 20 7/8 in. (66.7 x 53 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Frank Batten

Object number61.91.1

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 209

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting; it is a half-length portrait of Mary O'Donnell at a little over one year old. She is seated in a brown ladderback chair, wearing a yellow-sprigged white dress with rose sash. A whistle-rattle hangs from a rose ribbon attached at her waist. She holds two red cherries in her right hand while her left rests on the arm of the chair. A deep red drapery hangs in the left background.

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, 1961. (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. "Paintings by the Peale Family," Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, Oct.1 - Oct. 31, 1954. (Exh. cat. no. 27) "Treasures from the Norfolk Museum," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Va., January 16 - 22, 1962. "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. (Exh. cat. p. 85) "Images of Childhood from The Chrysler Museum," Norfolk, Va., July 29 - Sept. 16, 1990. "Can-ton: The Baltimore Series," Peale Museum, Baltimore, Md., Mar. 19 - Sept. 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, _Artist of the Revolution: The Early Life of Charles Willson Peale_ (Hebron, Ct.: Feather and Good, 1939), X, 276. Charles Coleman Sellers, "Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale," _Transactions of the American Philosophical Society_ 42, part 1 (1952): 152-153, fig. 218. _Paintings by the Peale Family_, exh. cat., Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, 1954, 17. George H. Tucker, "Peale Portrait Trio Unique," _Norfolk Virginian-Pilot_, April 18, 1965, C3. Eloise Spaeth, _American Art Museums: An Introduction to Looking_ (New York: McGraw Hill, 1969), 165-166. Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., 1975, 85. Lillian B. Miller, et al., eds., _The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and his Family_, vol. 5, _The Autobiography of Charles Willson Peale_ (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 170-171. 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. 6. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6