Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - Portrait of Maria Wheelock Allen

Preview image of work. oil on canvas, Portrait of Maria Wheelock Allen 3632

1950.14

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Portrait of Maria Wheelock Allen

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Artist

Rembrandt Peale (1778 - 1860)

Title

Portrait of Maria Wheelock Allen

Creation Date

1825

Century

19th century

Dimensions

26 7/16 in. x 22 in. (67.15 cm x 55.88 cm)

Object Type

painting

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

oil on canvas

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Malleville McC. Howard

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

1950.14

Born in 1788, Marie Allen was the daughter of the Dartmouth College president John Wheelock and Marie Suhm. In this portrait by Rembrandt Peale, she is depicted in her prime, in a high-waisted dress with a sheer cap, an ornament of a married lady. Since her childhood in New Hampshire, Allen’s life was inextricably linked with that of Phebe Ann Jacobs (1785–1850), a slave on her grandfather’s New Jersey plantation, whom she received as a companion. Jacobs accompanied Marie and her husband William Allen to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1813, where she is recorded as a freed person. In 1819 the Allens came to Brunswick when William Allen became the Bowdoin College president. Marie Allen died in 1828 and is buried on Pine Grove Cemetery. Jacobs, who lived close to the Bowdoin campus and worshipped as a member of the First Parish Church, rests just a few feet away.

Keywords: portraits