Portrait of Sarah Wilbur Peirce (Mrs. David R. Peirce)(1808-1871)

Date1845

Artist William Matthew Prior (1806-1873)

OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, New Bedford

MediumOil on academy board, framed and glazed

DimensionsUnframed: 16 1/8" x 12 1/8" and Framed: 22" X 18"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1989.100.4

DescriptionBust-length portrait of a woman facing right. She wears a white cap with ruffle, black dress over a white, collared, buttoned shirtfront or dickey. She poses before a red drape with looped tassel cords and a cloud-filled sky.
Label TextWilliam Matthew Prior was shrewd, capable, and versatile. Surviving portraits and newspaper advertisements make it clear that he adjusted his method of painting to suit customers' pocketbooks. For bargain-hunters, he worked in the so-called "flat" style represented here. Freed from the necessity of rendering painstaking modeling and shading, the artist could work quickly --- and therefore cheaply.

Prior captured three generations of a single family in the five Peirce portraits owned by the museum. In addition to this representation of Sarah Wilbur Peirce, these show Sarah's husband, David R. Peirce (1806-1885), David's parents, Abraham Peirce (1779-1850) and Mary Hafford Peirce (1779-1848), and a son of David and Sarah, Walter Adams Peirce (1838-1913). A bust to half-length pose that excluded hands was the cheapest option Prior offered in full-scale portraiture.

InscribedPainted on the backboard is, "Mrs Sarah W. Peirce/Aged 37. 1845/By Wm M. Prior".
ProvenanceCurrier (see "Vendor") stated that he acquired this portrait and its companions (1989.100.1 through 1989.100.3 and 1989.100.5) from a descendant of the sitter: a sister of Arthur Thomas Peirce (b. 1915) of Berkley, Mass.