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
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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
- Figure female — child — bust
- Portrait female — Brown, Laura — bust
- Object Number
- 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)
