Artist/Maker

Clephan, Lewis

Place Made

Date Made

1820-1825

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

HOA: 33 3/4″; WOA: 25 1/4″ (see desc.)
FRAME DIMENSIONS: HOA: 43 1/4″; WOA: 35 1/2″

Accession Number

4347.3

Description

SITTER: Mary Berry (1780-1853) was the daughter of Zachariah Berry (1749-1845), a planter, and Mary Williams Berry of “Concord”, Prince George’s County, Maryland. She married Otho Berry Beall (1790-1853), son of Samuel Brook Beall (1762- 1842) and his wife Elinor Berry Beall. The couple lived at “Westphalia,” also known as “White House Place,” on White House Road near Ritchie in Prince George’s County, Maryland. They had three children: William Zachariah Beall (1815-1858), Washington Jeremiah Beall (1818-1895), and Zachariah Berry Beall (1825-1859).

ARTIST: Lewis Clephan (1752-1833) was active in New York City as a miniaturist and hairworker from 1787-88. Between 1797-1833 he lived in Washington, D.C., where he worked as a decorative painter at the Capitol and White House, under Dr. William Thornton. He was also the proprietor of a painting, glass, canvas, and frame business. He died in Washington, D.C.

FRAME: Portrait is in highly carved, gilded frame. The canvas is tacked to the sides of the stretcher which appears to be original. Stretcher is mortise and tenoned with pegs at each corner.

RELATED OBJECTS: MESDA also owns a needlework by Mary Beall (MESDA acc. 4347.1) as well as the companion portrait of her husband Otho Berry Beall (MESDA acc. 4347.2). MESDA also owns an additional portrait by Clephan, that of Leonard Harbaugh (MESDA acc. 2501).

DESCRIPTION: 3/4 length portrait of Mrs. Otho Berry Beall (Mary Berry Beall) turning slightly to the left. She is seated in a yellow painted fancy chair with her arms folded in her lap and in her proper right hand she holds a flower. A table with a basket of flowers with a pink curtain draped above is to her ruight. She is wearing a white bonnet with a lace ruffle and a tie at the top, a beaded necklace, and a sheer light colored neckerchief. Her dress is blue with a white ruffled collar and lace at the sleeve hem, and a gold belt. Mrs. Beall has dark hair and eyes, and a slight double chin.

History

This portrait along with a needlework by Mary and the companion portrait of her husband Otho Berry Beall descended in the Beall family and came out of Mt. Lubentia, one of the family homes owned at one time by Otho Berry Beall and given by him to his son, Washington Jeremiah, upon his marriage to Mary Ann Magruder in 1840. The signatures of Zachariah Berry Beall and Martha E. Addison (who became his wife in 1856) are penciled in the plaster of the East wall of the 2nd floor hall of “Mt. Lubentia.”

Artist Biography

ARTIST: Lewis Clephane (1752-1833) was active in New York City as a miniaturist and hairworker, 1787-88. From 1797-1833, he lived in Washington, D.C. where he worked as a decorative painter at the Capitol and White House, under Dr. William Thornton. He was the proprietor of a painting, glass, canvas, and frame business. He died in Washington, D.C. His great-nephew, Lewis Clephane II, was a founder of the local Republican party and publisher of the National Era, which engaged Harriet Beecher Stowe to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Forrest D. Bowie in memory of Mr. Forrest D. Bowie