Title: Isabel Perkins Anderson
Object Name: Painting
Object ID: 1980.038
Creator: Lockman, DeWitt M. (1870-1957)Artist
Place of Origin: New York, NY
Date: 1920 circa
Description: Portrait of Isabel Perkins Anderson (1876-1948), attributed to DeWitt M. Lockman (1870-1957), c. 1920. Oil on canvas. Full-length standing portrait of a woman facing right; eyes turned toward viewer. Sitter has brown hair worn up and brown eyes. Wearing a wide-neck purple and blue dress with purple sheer sleeves, gray fabric and long tie on bodice, brown printed shawl, and gold necklace with large purple stone at center. Sitter's left hand feeds a blue, green, and yellow macaw perched on a brass stand. Impressionistic flowers and white wall in background; brown floor. Unsigned. Gilded gesso over wood frame with curvilinear edges and center and corner cartouches.
Material: Textile
Dimensions: H-80 W-43 inches
Provenance: The donor, Evelyn Foster Hastings (1890-1983), was the granddaughter of Commodore Perkins' sister, Harriet M. Perkins (1834-1899). In 1980, Mrs. Hastings stated that the portrait was painted by DeWitt Lockman at the Anderson house on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston when the subject was about 45 (c. 1920).
Isabel Perkins Anderson (1876-1948) was the daughter of Commodore George Hamilton Perkins (1835-1899) of Hopkinton, NH. Although born in Boston, she held New Hampshire in great affection. She maintained the Perkins homestead in Contoocook and a summer house she called "The Box" on Lake Winnepocket in Webster. At age 21, she married Larz Anderson (1866-1937), a diplomat who served as U.S. minister to Belgium and ambassador to Japan.
In 1902, Mrs. Anderson presented the State of New Hampshire with a bronze statue of her father, a noted naval officer during the Civil War, serving under Admiral Farragut at Mobile Bay. The statue, by Daniel Chester French, still stands behind the State House.
Mrs. Anderson was very involved with the Red Cross, but it was as a writer of children's and travel books that her name became known to many. Her main residences were in Washington, DC, and Brookline, MA. She eventually left her palatial 1905 Washington home to the Society of the Cincinnati, and the house now serves as their national headquarters.
Credit Line: Gift of Evelyn Foster Hastings
People:
Anderson, Isabel Perkins (1876-1948),
Lockman, DeWitt M. (1870-1957)
Subjects:
Anderson, Isabel Perkins,
Authors,
Red Cross,
Society women,
Writers,
Philanthropists,
Philanthropy,
Parrots,
Birds,
Portraits