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

Mary O'Donnell

Artist Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741-1827)

Date1791

MediumOil on canvas

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

ClassificationsAmerican art

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Frank Batten

Object number61.91.1

Terms

Girl
Yellow
Red
Pink
Gold
Brown
White
American naive

On View

On view

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