Mary
Ilse Martha Bischoff, American, 1901 - 1990
1943
Oil on canvas
Overall: 34 1/8 × 32 1/4 in. (86.7 × 81.9 cm)
Frame: 45 3/4 × 43 3/4 in. (116.2 × 111.1 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of the artist
P.953.100
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Painting
Research Area
Painting
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed, upper right: Ilse Bischoff
Label
We do not know the circumstances under which Mary sat as a model for Ilse Bischoff, a White artist living in New York City. Mary looks over her shoulder with a warm yet inquisitive expression, but her distance from the viewer is maintained by the turn of her body. Bischoff took great care in rendering Mary, delicately capturing the flowers pinned to her hat and her green and gold shawl draped behind her. In so doing, Bischoff promoted Mary’s individual sense of fashion and self-presentation.
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
English 39.01, American Fiction: 1950-1990, Kimberly Brown, Winter 2025
Italian 1.01, Introductory Italian I, Floriana Ciniglia, Spring 2025
Spanish 3.01, Spanish III, Natalia Monetti, Spring 2025
Spanish 3.02, Spanish III, Natalia Monetti, Spring 2025
Anthropology 31.01, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 36.01, Gender in Cross Cultural Perspectives, Sabrina Billings, Fall 2025
Studio Session: Beyond the Bouquet, Winter 2025
Special Tour: Attitude of Coexistence and Beyond the Bouquet, Winter 2025
Exhibition Tour: Attitudes of Coexistence and Beyond the Bouquet, Winter 2025
Exhibition History
Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 18, 2024 - January 10, 2026.
Fred Wilson, So Much Trouble in the World - Believe It or Not!, Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 4-December 11, 2005.
Hopkins Center Art Gallery, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, (introduction by Paul Cadmus), Ilse Bischoff, A Retrospective, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1966.
Ilse Bischoff, Southern Vermont Art Center, Manchester, Vermont, July 9-August 6, 1968.
There is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, September 16, 2021-January 30, 2022.
Publication History
Hommage a la Femme Noire, Vol. 5. Simone Schartz-Bart, Les Edition "Consulaires", 24 Rue Saint Gilles, 75004, PARIS.
Barbara Thompson, Fred Wilson, So Much Trouble in the World - Believe It or Not!, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2005.
Provenance
The artist; given to present collection, 1953.
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