WOMAN IN ART
sonnets, and from these we can well understand her character and influence upon him. She made friends with men of highest position and kept them for friends while commanding their highest respect. She died in 1547."
Portrait painting in America was not as crude an art as many thought previous to 1890. If not the first, one of the first missionaries came to the foreign field of America in 1710 to minister to a little band of Swedish settlers who had located on the Delaware River. With the missionary came his brother Gustavus Hesselius, a portrait painter, and within two years each took to himself a wife. The Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts contains the portrait of Gustavus and his wife Lyda, painted and signed by himself. Among other portraits from his easel that of Mistress Ann Galloway of Tulip Hill, Maryland, introduces us to a typical lady of that time. These and other portraits prove the man from Sweden to have been a trained and understanding artist. Later it was discovered that he was also the first organ builder in America, and that work was for the Moravian brethren at Bethlehem, in 1746. The first commission for a work of art in a public building was given Mr. Hesselius "Aug. ye 2d, 1720: Ye vestry agree with Mr. Gustavus Hesselius to paint ye altar piece and Communion Table, and write such sentences of Scripture as shall be thought proper thereon, and wn. finished to lay his acct. of charge before ye Vestry for wch. they are to allow in their discretion not exceeding 8 pounds curry. to wch. agreement he subscribed his name."
Not only does the portrait of Mistress Ann Galloway stand for the vigorous and strong-minded Colonial Dame, but it shows to a nicety the quality of goods and style of costuming of that time, and shows also the remarkable technique of the artist. It makes one wish it were possible to see his painting of the "Last Supper" over the altar in St. Barnabas' Church near Wilmington on the Delaware River—the first mural painting in the new world.
A mere first glance at the portrait of Mary Ball brings the exclamation, "George Washington," so striking is the likeness of the son to his mother. Even should the comparison be made with any of the numerous portraits of Washington the likeness would be impressive. Nor was the resemblance confined to the features; characteristics both mental and temperamental were
266
