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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2009.80
People
Unidentified Artist
Title
Mary Eliot Holyoke (Mrs. Elizur Holyoke) (1655-1721)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1700-1715
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/327031

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
87.6 x 76.8 cm (34 1/2 x 30 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • label: glued to verso of canvas: Mary Holyoke (was Elliot)-Mother of Rev(d) Edw(d) Holyoke died February 2 1721 at Boston aged 65 or 66. dau(r) of Mr. Jacob Elliot of Boston.
  • label: stuck to verso of canvas: Mary Eliot Holyoke
    Mother of .....?
    Mary Eliot Nichols
    choice of .....?
  • label: stuck to lower strainer member: Mr. & Mrs. Nichols
    from M.N. Nichols.
  • inscription: in ink, in the lower left corner of frame (possibly original?): Mary
    Grandmother
    of EAH MD
    Died 1721

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Mary Holyoke; to her son, President Edward Holyoke of Harvard, c. 1721; by descent to Andrew Nichols, by 1901; Northeast Auctions, 2004; purchased by Robert Trent and Alan Miller.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Daniel A. Pollack, Class of 1960, American Art Acquisition Fund, purchased in honor of Sandra Grindlay, Curator of the Harvard University Portrait Collection 1990-2009
Accession Year
2009
Object Number
2009.80
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • George F. Dow, The Holyoke Diaries 1709-1856 (Salem, Massachusetts, 1911), ill. p. xiii
  • Charles Knowles Bolton, The Founders: portraits of persons born abroad who came to the colonies in North America before the year 1701, Boston Athenaeum (Boston, MA, 1919 - 1926), vol. III, ill. 931.
  • Historical Records Survey, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Works Progress Administration, American Portraits, 1620-1825, found in Massachusetts, Volumes 1 and 2, Historical Records Survey (Boston, MA, 1939), p. 204, cat. 1072
  • 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. 492-93, cat. 457, ill.

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