Portrait showing a young woman wearing a white lace dress embellished with a bouquet of brightly-colored flowers. The dress has a high, ruffled lace collar with a rose bud and stem pinned at the center. The translucent sleeves are gathered into poofs. A posy of pink and white flowers with green foliage is pinned to her chest at center. She is holding a lace shawl. Her hair is swept back from her face and held in a simple style.
Type of Painting
Easel
Artwork Details
Medium
Oil
Subject Person or Organization
Pitkin, Ella Luthera Dewey (1850-1879)
Acquisition
Accession
2011.13
Source or Donor
Buxton, J. Brooks (1934-2018)
Acquisition Method
Gift
Made/Created
Artist
Wood, Thomas Waterman (1823-1903)
Date made
1883
Place
City
Montpelier
County
Washington County
State/Province
Vermont
Country
United States of America
Continent
North America
Lexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Secondary Object Term
Portrait
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
Painting
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
Picture
Nomenclature Class
Art
Nomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication Objects
Dimensions
Dimension Description
Overall (framed)
Height
34-1/2 in
Width
29-5/8 in
Dimension Description
Overall (unframed)
Height
29-1/4 in
Width
24-1/4 in
Interpretative Labels
Label
Ella Luthera Dewey Pitkin, 1883
Thomas Waterman Wood (1823-1903)
Montpelier, VT
Oil on canvas
Gift of J. Brooks Buxton, #A-945
Ella Luthera Dewey Pitkin (1850-1879) was the second daughter of Charles and Betsy Tarbox Dewey and granddaughter of Julius Dewey. She married Carrol Pitkin in 1873 but died young in 1879. This portrait is one of two commissioned by the family from Thomas Waterman Wood after her death.
Thomas W. Wood is arguably Montpelier's most famous artist. The son of a cabinet maker, he was largely self-taught, yet rose to the highest ranks of genre painters in the united states.
