Mary Eva Woodward
Thomas Waterman Wood, American, 1823 - 1903
1869
Oil on canvas
Overall: 30 3/8 × 24 15/16 in. (77.2 × 63.3 cm)
Frame: 35 × 30 in. (88.9 × 76.2 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Mary Eva Woodward, the sitter
P.942.22
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
19th century
Object Name
Painting
Research Area
Painting
On view
Inscriptions
Signed and dated, lower left: T. W. Wood / 1869
Label
Three-year-old Mary Woodward selects flowers from her lap to create a small bouquet held in her left hand. The portrait emphasizes childhood innocence and play, which is augmented by her cat swatting at bleeding hearts. Woodward was the great-great-granddaughter of Eleazar Wheelock, a co-founder of Dartmouth College with Mohegan Reverend Samson Occom. The painter, Thomas Waterman Wood, grew up in Montpelier, Vermont, and later established his career in New York, but his parents were from nearby Lebanon, New Hampshire. When Mary Woodward’s parents required a portraitist, they likely hired Wood due to his local connections.
From the 2024 exhibition Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Course History
ITAL 2, Introductory Italian II, Scott Milspaugh, Fall 2013
ITAL 2, Introductory Italian II, Jonathan Mullins, Winter 2014
ITAL 2, Introductory Italian II, Scott Millspaugh, Winter 2014
Exhibition History
American Flowers, Colby-Sawyer College, New London, New Hampshire, January 29-February 15. 1982.
Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 18, 2024 - late 2025.
Unlayering Stereotypes: Selections from the Permanent Collection For Teaching Cultural Anthropology, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Anthropology 7, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 24-August 20, 1995.
Provenance
Mary Eva Woodward (1866-1945), the sitter [great, great granddaughter of Eleazar Wheelock]; given to present collection, 1942.
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