Mary Whipple Bears (1820-1853), (painting).

Mary Whipple Bears (1820-1853), (painting).

Bears, Orlando Hand, 1812-1851, painter.

Mary Whipple Bears (1820-1853), (painting).

34 x 27 1/4 in.

Portrait of the artist's wife Mary Whipple Bears seated with her body facing forward, her head turned just slightly to the left, and her gaze directed toward the viewer. Her right arm rests beside an open book on a table beside her. She wears a tan off-the-shoulder dress trimmed with white lace, and her dark hair is swept back from her face with pink flowers over her ears. In the background there is a window with a view looking out over a seacoast.

Portrait female -- Bears, Orlando Hand, Mrs. (Mary Whipple) -- Waist Length

Object -- Written Matter -- Book

Architecture interior -- Detail -- Window

Rattray, Helen S.,

Mary Whipple was born in 1820 in Groton, Connecticut. She married Orlando Hand Bears there at the age of eighteen, and they had five children.

Lawson, Pamela Vail, Sag Harbor Historical Society, Sag Harbor, New York, 2008.

"Cross Currents: Faces, Figureheads and Scrimshaw Fancies," New York, NY: Museum of American Folk Art, 1984 (brochure), no. 36.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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