Miss Mary Tunaley

Wright, Joseph, of Derby (1734–1797)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

1790-1793

Height:

77.2 cm  (30 3/8 in.)

Width:

64.1 cm  (25 1/4 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on canvas

Description

The subject of this portrait is presented sitting at a keyboard instrument (harpsichord or fortepiano; only a portion of the case is visible) with an open score on its music rack. Description from museum website: According to family tradition, the sitter, Mary Tunaley, was a particular favorite of Joseph Wright, who in the early 1790s lived near the Tunaley family in Derby, England. She eventually came to Boston with her husband, Francis Boott, a partner in the trading firm Boott & Farrow and cousin to Kirk Boott, who helped establish the earliest textile mills in Lowell, north of Boston. Mary was the great-grandmother of Guy Lowell, architect of the MFA’s 1909 building, whose wife gave the painting to the Museum.

People as subjects

Tunaley, Mary (1775-1846) (Musician portrait)

Iconclass

48C7512
person with musical instrument, musing, contemplating

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Keyboard instruments [2230]

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

RIdIM record id

5855