Colonial Dame

Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum closes this weekend at the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville South Carolina. 

In this portrait, Mary Alsop's erect posture and stern expression characterize her as a formidable woman. After her husband's death, Mary successfully managed the family's international mercantile business, including shipping, dry goods, and real estate. The river, seen through the window, alludes to the importance river and sea transport played in her business ventures, while her silver snuffbox suggests the common use of tobacco in eighteenth-century America.

This portrait by Ralph Earle, along with 52 other masterworks from the Smithsonian American Art Museum are included in Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, an exhibition of early American art which will continue to tour the nation through 2002.

Source: Gwen Everett. Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured: Ralph Earle, 1751–1801, Mrs. Richard Alsop, 1792, oil, 45 5/8 x 36 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase and gift of Joseph Alsop.