American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists

Provenance:

The Artist.

Elizabeth Howard Bartol, friend and second cousin of the artist.

Elizabeth Bartol Dewing, the artist's daughter.

A gift from the above.

Mr. and Mrs. Nelson C. White, Waterford, Connecticut.

By descent in the White family to the present owner, Connecticut.

Exhibited:

New York, National Academy of Design, n.d. (possibly 1927).

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, "An Exhibition of Paintings by Maria Oakey Dewing," March 2 – 23, 1907, no. 16.

Literature:

(possibly) Elisabeth L. Cary, "General View of the Academy Exhibit," New York Times, December 4, 1927, p. XII.

Lot Note:

It would be hasty to assume that The Mother is simply a straightforward depiction of motherhood and nothing else. Although the woman and her child occupy the majority of the composition, the eye is immediately immersed into the fabric of her dress displaying an intricate floral arrangement, a subject Maria Oakey Dewing excelled at painting. The dress, with its abundantly flowing design and myriad folds and recesses that take the viewer on a winding, seemingly never-ending tour, invites us to look closely at Dewing’s rich aesthetic, and compels us to recognize the artist in the woman portrayed here.

Through an interplay of uniform, darker tones and eclectic, brighter hues, the painting indeed signals an uneasy ambivalence between Dewing’s maternal self and her artistic identity. For most of her career, she felt eclipsed by her husband, painter Thomas Dewing, and this portrait, which subtly but no less dramatically emphasizes her skill, is a way to reclaim the spotlight as an artist. Here, Dewing signals her dual identity—a woman defined by her role as a mother, a role that proved visceral after the loss of her son and foundational following the birth of her daughter, and also a creatively independent artist in her own right.