''Mrs. Beckington'' is a 1913

miniature painting Miniature painting may refer to: * Miniature (illuminated manuscript), a small illustration used to decorate an illuminated manuscript * Persian miniature, a small painting on paper in the Persian tradition, for a book or album * Ottoman miniature, ...

in watercolour on ivory by

Alice Beckington Alice Beckington (July 30, 1868 – January 4, 1942) was an American painter. Born in St. Charles, Missouri, Beckington studied art at the Art Students League of New York, where she was a pupil of J. Carroll Beckwith; she also studied for a mo ...

. It is in the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York.

Early history and creation

The miniature painting was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1914. The painting was part of the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters The Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters was founded in 1901 by Emily Drayton Taylor to promote the work of miniature portrait A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, Watercolor painting, waterc ...

' 12th annual exhibition.

Description and interpretation

The work depicts Alice Beckington's mother. The artist signed the painting on the front top left.

Influence

The painting was influenced by ''

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 ''Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1'', best known under its colloquial name ''Whistler's Mother'' or ''Portrait of Artist's Mother'', is a painting in oils on canvas created by the American-born painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler in 1871. T ...

'' (1871) by

James Abbott McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

References

Metropolitan Museum of Art 2017 drafts Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art 20th-century portraits Miniature painting 1913 paintings {{Met-stub