Title
Portrait of Maud Howe
Object Type
Creator
Date
1877
Notes
Paris-trained Boston portraitist Benjamin Porter evokes a young, elegant, Maud Howe (1854-1948) in this sumptuous portrait. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Maud was one of six children of Julia Ward Howe, the famed women's rights supporter and author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," and Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, a noted philanthropist and educator. Her maternal forebears were illustrious citizens in colonial Rhode Island. The Howe family spent time in their Boston home, Green Peace, as well as their Portsmouth, Rhode Island, summer homes, Oak Glen and Lawton's Valley. Elliott continued the work of her mother in the fight for woman's suffrage, becoming president of the Newport County Woman Suffrage League. She was a political activist, supporting the Progressive Party and urging Theodore Roosevelt to run for president.
Although Elliott studied painting, she recognized that "an artist must have art in his fingers as well as his soul," and she thereafter devoted her energies to becoming an advocate for the arts. In 1887 she married the English painter John Elliott. After a prolonged period living in Italy, the Elliotts returned to Newport, where Maud was asked to deliver a lecture on "An Artist's Life in Rome." In conjunction with the talk, Elliott and her colleagues arranged an exhibition of pictures by local artists, to take place at the Y.M.C.A. in March 1912. This display was so well received by the public that plans commenced to form an art association. Elliott became the driving force behind the Art Association of Newport, offering a passionate rhetoric about the importance of art to society in her annual reports to the membership.
Although Elliott studied painting, she recognized that "an artist must have art in his fingers as well as his soul," and she thereafter devoted her energies to becoming an advocate for the arts. In 1887 she married the English painter John Elliott. After a prolonged period living in Italy, the Elliotts returned to Newport, where Maud was asked to deliver a lecture on "An Artist's Life in Rome." In conjunction with the talk, Elliott and her colleagues arranged an exhibition of pictures by local artists, to take place at the Y.M.C.A. in March 1912. This display was so well received by the public that plans commenced to form an art association. Elliott became the driving force behind the Art Association of Newport, offering a passionate rhetoric about the importance of art to society in her annual reports to the membership.
Cultural Origin
Boston
Medium
Oil on canvas
Extent
frame: 90 in x 61 in; image: 72 in x 48 in
Source
Purchased from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1993, Through the generosity of many donors, particularly R. Campbell James.
Identifier
1992.012.001
For more information about this item, please contact its owning institution.