TitleMiriam Phillips Walley
Artist
Gilbert Stuart
(American, 1775 - 1828)
Daten.d.
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 29 1/4 × 24 1/4 in.
Framed: 38 1/2 × 34 × 2 in.
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, Gift of Henry Peters Gray, NA, 1852
Object number1224-P
Label TextMiriam Phillips Walley (1779-1827) was the daughter of William Phillips, Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, and Miriam Mason. In 1803 she married Samuel Hall Walley, a Boston merchant.Although Lawrence Park, in his monograph on Gilbert Stuart, dates this painting around 1806, the portrait depicts a woman who has advanced far beyond her twenties. Mrs. Walley's age in this portrait suggests that it was more likely to have been painted arround 1825. Assuming that this date is correct, Henry Peters Gray (q.v.) may have acquired the portrait from the many unfinished portrits left in Stuart's estate. Although the Academy's council minutes make no reference to Gray's gift, the portrait is included in the schedual of property which was published with the Academy's constitution in 1852.
