In this painting, sisters Mary and Emily McEuen glance at the viewer in a sentimental moment of familial affection. One sister gently rests her hand on the other’s shoulder in a modest embrace. The young women’s heavy eyelids, smooth porcelain skin, and carefully arranged curls contribute to their soft, dreamy appearance. The variety of textiles that comprise the furniture and clothing, including a velvet settee and a finely woven shawl draped over one sister’s shoulder, convey their wealth and status. Although pictured in a domestic setting, the young women appear cultured and engaged with the world around them. One sister holds a portfolio of artworks in her lap; the writing on the folder, “Sketches from Nature,” is perhaps a reference to the British satirist Thomas Rowlandson’s portfolio of prints, Sketches from Nature, published the year before. The flowers on the table not only imitate Dutch still-life paintings by artists such as Daniel Seghers but also gesture to the botanical culture of Philadelphia, where the sisters resided and where naturalists like William Bartram flourished.
Mary and Emily were two of five children of Thomas and Hannah McEuen. An inscription on the back of the painting records that a third sister, Elizabeth, presented this painting to Mary and Emily on December 25, 1823, likely as a Christmas gift. (A portrait of Elizabeth, also from 1823, is now at the Honolulu Museum of Art.) The siblings’ father was a securities broker and land speculator in Philadelphia, and an inventory of the McEuen home, taken upon his death in 1822, catalogues rooms full of luxurious furnishings. The tender interaction of sisters Mary and Emily, the prosperity that surrounds them, and their sister Elizabeth’s presentation of the painting as a gift all contribute to the sense of effortless beauty and luxury captured in the work. After studying painting for a brief period in England, Sully spent most of his career in Philadelphia and was especially celebrated for his romantic portraits of young women, such as this.
Selected Bibliography
Feld, Stuart P. The American Experience: October 27−-November 27, 1976. Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1976.
Miller, Angela, and Chris McAuliffe, eds. America: Painting a Nation. Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2013.
Wilmerding, John, Linda Ayres, Earl A. Powell, Jo Ann Ganz, and Julian Ganz. An American Perspective: Nineteenth-Century Art from the Collection of Jo Ann & Julian Ganz, Jr. National Gallery of Art, 1981.
Selected Exhibition History
LACMA at 40: Gifts in Honor of the Museum’s Anniversary, LACMA, February–April 2006.
American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765−1915, LACMA, February–May 2010.
Art Across America, LACMA, February−May 2013.
