Painting

Title:

Ingalls Sisters

Object Name:

Painting

Object ID:

1965.052

Creator:

Ingalls, Walter (1805-1874)Artist

Date:

circa 1870

Description:

Painting. Portrait of the Ingalls Sisters (from left to right: Mahala Conner, Pamelia Willson, Mary Ann Ward), by Walter Ingalls (1805-1874), c. 1870. Oil on canvas. Three-quarter views of three woman. Oval composition on a rectilinear canvas. Woman at left facing forward; wearing a green wide-neck dress with gigot sleeves; brown wavy hair with side part; blue eyes. Woman at center shown with body in profile to left but with head turned toward viewer; wearing a blue wide-neck dress with gigot sleeves; dark brown hair with side part and curls; brown eyes. Woman at right facing rear left with head looking over her shoulder; wearing a white wide-neck dress with gigot sleeves; brown hair center parted, curled and pulled up; brown eyes. Foreground three sitters' skirts are abstracted in swirls of paint. Gray-green background with white painted spandrels. Unsigned. Gilded gesso over molded wood frame, shield and foliate designs in corners, gilded spandrels.

Material:

Textile
Canvas

Dimensions:

H-30 W-25.1 inches

Provenance:

Purchased by the seller from Mrs. Dudley Orr (Florence Gene Ward) of Concord, NH, great-granddaughter of Mary Ann Ingalls Ward.

The three sisters of Sanbornton, NH, artist Walter Ingalls, left to right: Mahala Ingalls Conner (1810-1883), Pamelia Ingalls Willson (1814-1893), and Mary Ann Ingalls Ward (1821-1893).

The Ingalls sisters appear to wear clothing styles of the 1830s. The painting is thought, however, to date from a later date (c. 1870), stylistically, in the artist's career and to have been done from earlier portraits.

Credit Line:

New Hampshire Historical Society Purchase

People:

Conner, Mahala Ingalls (1810-1883), Ward, Mary Ann Ingalls (1821-1893), Willson, Pamelia Ingalls (1814-1893), Ingalls, Walter (1805-1874)

Subjects:

Portraits, Portrait paintings, Sisters, Siblings, Memory