Laura Brown

Anne Whitney, Laura Brown, 1859, marble, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Given in memory of Charles Downing Lay and Laura Gill Lay by their children, 1968.24
Copied Anne Whitney, Laura Brown, 1859, marble, 12 5⁄8 x 11 x 6 in. (32.0 x 27.9 x 15.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Given in memory of Charles Downing Lay and Laura Gill Lay by their children, 1968.24
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
Laura Brown
Artist
Date
1859
Location
Dimensions
12 5⁄8 x 11 x 6 in. (32.0 x 27.9 x 15.3 cm)
Credit Line
Given in memory of Charles Downing Lay and Laura Gill Lay by their children
Mediums
Mediums Description
marble
Classifications
Subjects
  • Portrait female — Brown, Laura — bust
  • Figure female — child — bust
Object Number
1968.24
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1968.24

Artwork Description

Anne Whitney opened a girls’ school in Salem, Massachusetts, when she was only twenty-five. Over the next two years, she made friends with a local shipowner, William Augustus Brown. Several years later, Brown commissioned Whitney to create a bust of his youngest daughter. Laura, or “Bee-Bee” as Whitney called her, was only two or three years old at the time of this portrait, and the artist captured her youthful innocence in the figure’s half-smile and plump features. (Tufts, American Women Artists, 1987)