Charles Willson Peale
Mary Sterett (Mrs. Richard Gittings, Sr.)
1787
Scroll
Charles Willson Peale
Mary Sterett (Mrs. Richard Gittings, Sr.)
1787
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, Framed: 39 1/2 × 33 3/8 × 3 1/8 in. (100.3 × 84.8 × 7.9 cm.)
Sight: 32 1/2 × 26 3/8 in. (82.6 × 67 cm.)
Credit Line
Bequest of D. Sterett Gittings
Object Number
1948.11
Stylishly gowned and coiffed, 16-year-old Mary Sterett (1772–1847) embodies youth, beauty, and privilege. Peale, who was equally interested in art and natural history, included a caged mockingbird in Mary’s portrait. Mary has opened the door, but the text of the open book reads “I can’t get out.” This lends a note of ambiguity to the portrait, painted the year she married Richard Gittings, Sr.
Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1948; David Sterett Gittings (1861-1948), Baltimore, MD by descent, 1884; Richard J. (1830-1882) and Victoria Gittings (1833-1884), Worcester, MD by descent, 1887; David (1797-1887) and Julianna W.H. Gittings (1797-1847), Worcester, MD by descent, 1847; Richard J. Gittings (1763-1830) and Mary "Polly" Sterett (1772-1847)(m. November 30, 1788), Baltimore, MD, by commission, 1788
AMW Reinstallation 2014
American Wing Rotations 2020
American Wing Rotations 2021
American Wing Rotations 2022
American Wing Rotations 2023
American Wing Rotations 2024
American Wing Rotations 2025
Sellers, Charles Coleman. "Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale," Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1952, pp. 88-89, no. 302, ill. no. 217
Johnston, Sona K. "American Painting 1750-1900 from the Collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art," 1983, pp. 113-114, ill. p. 114
Wharton, Anne H. "Social Life in the Early Republic," London and Philadelphia: Lippincott Co., 1902, pp. 145-146, ill. as frontispiece
"The Collection of Mary Frick Jacobs," privately printed by Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs, Baltimore, 1938, n.p.
Flexner, James Thomas. "250 Years of Painting in Maryland," Magazine of Art, Dec. 1945, pp. 292-293.
Pleasants, J. Hall. "A Bequest: Two Portraits by C. W. Peale," BMA News, Vol. XII, Mar. 1949, pp. 1-3, ill. on cover.
Sellers, Charles Coleman. "Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale," Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1952, p. 89, no. 304, ill. p. 321, no. 216.
"A Picture Book," BMA, 1955, ill. p. 41.
"The Frontier Fallacy," BMA News, Vol. XXI, no. 5, June 1958, ill. p. 4.
"The Collection of Mary Frick Jacobs," privately printed by Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs, Baltimore, 1938, n.p.
Flexner, James Thomas. "250 Years of Painting in Maryland," Magazine of Art, Dec. 1945, pp. 292-293.
Pleasants, J. Hall. "A Bequest: Two Portraits by C. W. Peale," BMA News, Vol. XII, Mar. 1949, pp. 1-3, ill. on cover.
Sellers, Charles Coleman. "Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale," Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1952, p. 89, no. 304, ill. p. 321, no. 216.
"A Picture Book," BMA, 1955, ill. p. 41.
"The Frontier Fallacy," BMA News, Vol. XXI, no. 5, June 1958, ill. p. 4.
Inscribed: l.l. on base of column "C. W. Peale / pinx: 1788"
On View at the BMA
