Woman with Spectacles | Harvard Art Museums

Gallery Text

This arresting portrait of a bespectacled woman standing before a window has charmed members of the Harvard community for decades. Her steady gaze and the detailed depiction of her hair, jewelry, and black tailored gown convey agency and intelligence. These specific elements of self-fashioning demonstrate Prior’s skill in representing the rich inner lives of his subjects through their surroundings and the objects they wear and hold.

The resemblance of the subject’s dress to academic and priestly robes has inspired new research. Harvard Art Museums curators are exploring the possibility that our subject may have lived around Albany, New York, and either attended or led one of the institutions for higher education for women in the region. We are also investigating the possibility that the portrait is an early example of Prior’s “spirit effect” portraits, in which he painted from memory posthumous portraits of indivi-duals who influenced him.

Identification and Creation

Object Number: H773
People: William Matthew Prior, American (Bath, ME 1806 - 1873 Boston, MA)
Title: Woman with Spectacles
Classification: Paintings
Work Type: painting
Date: c. 1838
Places: Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture: American
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/101510

Location

Location: Level 2, Room 2710, North Arcade

View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: sight: 81.3 x 71.1 cm (32 x 28 in.)
framed: 96.5 x 86.4 x 7.6 cm (38 x 34 x 3 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: Gift of Mrs. Gardiner H. Fiske to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, 1959.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard University Portrait Collection, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Gift of Mrs. Gardiner H. Fiske to Radcliffe College, 1959
Object Number: H773
Division: European and American Art
Contact: am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions: The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), pp. 405-6, cat. 366, ill.

Exhibition History

32Q: 2710 North Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/18/2023 - 01/01/2050

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Add to Collection

Log in to the Harvard Art Museums

H773: Woman with Spectacles