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MACMONNIES LOW Mary (born FAIRCHILD)

New Haven, Connecticut, 1858 - Bronxville, New York, 1946

Normande en costume avec son chat
Norman woman in traditional costume, with her cat

79.17

Miniature on ivory

H: 0, 10m.; W: 0, 86 m.

Vernon, Musée Alphonse-Georges Poulain

Signed lower right: Mary MacMonnies

Painting

From 1865 to 1900

Historical

Exhibited in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904.
Donated by the artist to the Musée de Vernon after her 1909 divorce from the sculptor Frederick William MacMonnie, followed by her return to the United States.

Comment

This miniature represents the left profile of a reddish-blond young woman with her hair in a traditional Norman coiffure. She wears a large lace collar, puffy sleeves.She holds a cat on her lap.
The hairstyle comes from the region of Lower Normandy ( Coutances or Avranches). The sitter may be Marthe Lucas, the governess of the artist's two young daughters.

Bibliography

Sophie Fourny-Dargère, Artistes de Giverny, les artistes de Giverny et leurs amis dans les collections du musée de Vernon, éd. Musée de Vernon, 2001, p. 25-26;

Cat. exp. F. W. MM, Mary Fairchild Macmonnies, deux artistes américains à Giverny, Vernon, Musée de Vernon, Cat. p. 22-24, n°6a.