Mary Walker Waugh
1868
- Medium
- oil on fabric
- Dimensions
- 86.2 × 66.1 cm
- Status
- In Museum Collection
- Collect24 Art ID
- C24-109548
William Holman Hunt painted this portrait of Mary Walker Waugh (1805–1886)—his mother-in-law—during a time of personal tragedy. Waugh’s daughter Fanny Waugh Hunt (1832–1866), the wife of the artist, had recently died following childbirth. References to loss of life infiltrate the composition: the sitter wears black mourning attire, and behind her is a screen decorated with red poppies, a traditional symbol of unconsciousness and lifelessness because of its pharmaceutical use as a source for opiates. In Victorian society, the red poppy also signified consolation.
Provenance
Marlatt Fund, 1984.41
Registry history
- 1868 — Recorded in the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
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