Lot 212: Mary B. Tucker (Massachusetts, 1784-1853) Profile Portrait of a Boy Holding an Orange. Signed and dated "By Mary B. Tucker. 1842" l.r.

Mary B. Tucker (Massachusetts, 1784-1853)

Profile Portrait of a Boy Holding an Orange. Signed and dated "By Mary B. Tucker. 1842" l.r. Watercolor and pencil on paper, 22 x 18 1/4 in., in a mahogany veneer frame with gilt liner. Condition: Laid down onto card, toning, tear c.r., minor foxing.

Note: A painting of two children attributed to artist Mary B. Tucker was exhibited in Women Only: Folk Art by Female Hands, April 6 to September 12, 2010, at The American Folk Art Museum, New York. The checklist of artists at the exhibition contains updated information regarding this little-known artist: "To date, nine watercolor portraits can confidently be attributed to the elusive artist Mary B. Tucker, and eight more are signed with her name and dated between 1840 and 1844. The severe watercolors are primarily bust- or waist-length, with the sitters shown in profile or slightly turned; all are executed on large-format sheets of paper, and none has a room setting or landscape view. A heavy black shading around the heads and necks of the subjects is used in the artist's earlier efforts. Later portraits show a more diffused shading over larger areas of the paper. The portraits continued a tradition of large-scale, half-length watercolor portraits that pictured a modest segment of society. Past conjecture about the identity of the artist placed her in Boston and the Concord-Sudbury area of Massachusetts. Recent research suggests she is Meribah Mowry of Douglas, Massachusetts, who married Chilon Tucker of Uxbridge in 1816. No evidence has yet been discovered to describe her relationship to the sitters, though it is possible that she taught painting, as Uxbridge was the site of a prestigious preparatory school. The inclusion of an illustrated primer in two double portraits of children tends to support this thesis."