Portrait of Matilda Morrow (Mrs. Amos Morrow)(?-?)
Dateca. 1800
Attributed to
Charles Peale Polk (1767-1822)
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOther (Unframed): 28 1/8 x 25 1/8in. (71.4 x 63.8cm)
Framed: 31 3/8 x 28 7/16 x 1 3/8in.
Credit LineGift of M. Knoedler and Company, Inc.
Object number1957.100.12
DescriptionA bust-to-half-length portrait of a woman turned slightly towards the viewer's right, her lower arms and hands not shown, the figure set within feigned, black-painted spandrels, with a pulled red drape running diagonally from upper right to lower left behind her. She wears a low-necked gown that is gathered immediately below the bust, the lace-trimmed neckline filled with a sheer white kerchief. The gown is of mixed green and copper colors, and a matching band encircles her white lace cap. She wears a thin black cord tied in a bow about her neck. Her brown hair is mostly covered by her cap. She has blue eyes.The 2 1/8-inch black-painted molded frame has a gilt liner and is possibly original.
Label TextLittle is known about Amos Morrow, but he apparently had no problem being captured for posterity as he really was, scalp tumors and all. Artist Charles Peale Polk needed to please his client in order to get paid, so Morrow must have been satisfied with the final image. In addition to Amos Morrow, Polk painted portraits of his wife, Matilda, and the couple’s two daughters.
The training Polk received from his famous uncle, Charles Willson Peale, is easily seen in these two likenesses. The swagged red curtain used as a backdrop and the oval framing appear in many of Polk’s pictures. He drew upon his experience in the Peale household for the multiple commissions he received throughout the western areas of Virginia and Maryland, including his time with the Morrows in Jefferson County, Virginia (now West Virginia).
ProvenanceNotes now in the archives of the Maryland Historical Society and originally made by historian J. Hall Pleasants about 1955, based on entries in a Worthington family bible, provide the basics for the following line of descent which, however, contains some gaps and has not yet been verified:
from the subject to her granddaughter, Sarah Burch Morrow Worthington (Mrs. Robert Worthington)(1786-1821); to her daughter, Sarah Worthington Hawks (Mrs. Wells Joseph Hawks); to her husband, Wells Joseph Hawks (1814-1873); to his son (by his previous marriage to Sarah Smith), Arthur Wells Hawks (1848-1933); to his son, Arthur Worthington Hawks (1878-1949); to his wife, Rachel Marshall Hawks (Mrs. Arthur Worthington Hawks)(d. 1964); to dealer Robert Carlen, Philadelphia, Pa; M. Knoedler & Co., New York, NY, which was CWF's source.
Probably 1838-1842
ca. 1800
