The Murray Sisters: Sally Scott Murray [later, Mrs. Edward Lloyd] (1775-1854) and Her Sister, Anna Maria Murray [later, Mrs. John Mason](1776-1857)

Date1794

Artist/Maker Bouché (active 1785-1801)

MediumOil on canvas (painting); repro frame 1996-826, C, is yellow poplar, gessoed and oil gilt with gold leaf. Surface of frame patinated with pigmented waxes.

DimensionsOther (unframed, post 2000 conservation): 39 1/2 x 32 3/8 x 1in. (100.3 x 82.2 x 2.5cm) and Framed (in original frame, "B"): 42 3/4 x 36in. (108.6 x 91.4cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1996-826,A&C

DescriptionA painting of two young women standing full length, both attired in white, long-sleeved, low-necked dresses and shown walking toward a portrait bust on a plinth at far right. The far left woman extends a floral wreath, as if to crown the bust, the woman at center holds an ivy garland, also apparently intending to decorate the bust. A body of water can be seen in the background and, on it, a sailing vessel. Trees flank the composition.
Label TextPresumably Bouché was French, although his first name and the basic facts of his life are unknown. Historians have identified several of his portraits of Americans, including a few profiles sensitively executed in pencil on paper.

This painting depicts Sally Scott Murray (1775-1854) and her sister, Anna Maria Murray (1776-1857), the daughters of James and Sarah Maynadier Murray of Annapolis, Maryland. The young women advance with garland and wreath toward a portrait bust of Dr. Upton Scott (1722-1814). Their gesture was not one of mourning; Scott was very much alive at the time and, in fact, Bouché executed the painting for him. In 1753, Scott, an Irish-born physician, had immigrated to Maryland, where he held a number of influential posts. His widely known royalist sympathies necessitated his residence abroad during the American Revolution, but he returned to Maryland in 1780.

The unusual painting not only honors the mutual regard between Scott and the Murray family, but also combines portraiture with aspects of genre and allegory and reflects French influence on the prevailing neoclassicism of post-Revolutionary Chesapeake Bay area culture.

In 1797, Sally Scott Murray married Edward Lloyd (1779-1834), the son of Edward Lloyd (1744-1796) and Elizabeth Tayloe Lloyd. In 1796, Ann Maria Murray married John Mason (1766-1849), the son of George Mason IV (1725-1792) and Ann Eilbeck Mason (?-1773).

InscribedIn paint in script at lower left is, "Bouché f. 1794".
Inscribed in paint on the portrait bust's plinth is, "AMICITIAE/SACRUM." Note: the plinth inscription is painted over another, earlier inscription reading, "LONGÈ & PROPÈ/MORS & VITA". The over-painting appears to have been done by the artist at or about the time of the overall work's execution.

ProvenanceInitially, the painting is believed to have been executed for Dr. Upton Scott (either commissioned by him or, perhaps more likely, commissioned by a member of the Murray family and presented to Scott as a gift). In either case, the painting hung in Scott's home by 1811, as confirmed by a diary reference. {See David Bailie Warden, "Journal of a Voyage from Annapolis to Cherbourg on Board of the Constitution 1 Aug. to 6 Sept., 1811" in Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. XI, no. 2 (June 1916), p. 132].

Documented ownership shows the painting in the possession of (1) "the Misses Dorsey, of Washington, great-granddaughters of Mrs. John Mason" in 1902 (see Wharton, "Bibliography," p. xiii) and of (2) Miss Virginia M. Ambler and Mrs. Jams B. Kempton in 1945 (see Two Hundred Years of Painting in Maryland, p. 31).

A speculative provenance (reconstructed with the help of the Frick Art Reference Library) might read: Family of the subjects; to Miss Virginia Mason; to the Misses Dorsey of Washington, D. C.; to Judge James M. Ambler of Baltimore, Md.; to Miss Virginia Mason Ambler and Mrs. James B. Kempton; to dealer Milly McGehee, CWF's source.

Exhibition(s)