a gift from the boston art club

courtesy of the Boston Art Club

Recently I had the pleasant surprise of a message from the Boston Art Club.  It was accompanied by the gift of permission to use the image above:  a 1914 portrait of "Penny Mumford" by artist Marie Haughton Spaeth (American, 1883-1937).  Here's some information about this artist and this portrait, also courtesy of the Boston Art Club:

Marie Haughton Spaeth (1870-1937) was born in Pennsylvania and was trained in Philadelphia, New York and in Europe. She married, had four children, and painted them extensively from when they were babies. When her children and friends' children were sitting for paintings, Spaeth found that animals kept them still and smiling, so many paintings of children have cats and kittens held dearly in their laps. These paintings were well received by the public. This painting of Penny Mumford was exhibited at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco in 1915.