Portrait of Eleanor Gillespie
Object number90.69.8
Artist
Jasper Lawman
Date1874
MediumOil on canvas; Wood; Glass
Credit LineEstate of Elizabeth Wray Wunder Firuski
DescriptionBust-length portrait of a young girl with dark hair. She is holding an open book and has a red ribbon tied at her neck and a blue locket on a gold chain. The portrait is under glass in an ornate gilt frame.Dimensions30.375 x 26.25 in. (77.2 × 66.7 cm)SignedOn back: "Jasper Lawman/Pinxit 1874"
InscriptionsELEANOR GILLESPIE DARR/DAUGHTER OF ASA SHINN AND/EMMA PALMER GILLESPIE/SARA GILLESPIE WRAY/SISTER OF J.J.GILLESPIE, JR.
Gillespie Estate (Firusky)
Marks
Historical NotesEleanor Gillespie Darr was the child of Asa Shinn Gillespie and Emma Palmer. Her paternal grandfather was J.J. Gillespie. The Gillespie Family was a prominent western Pennsylvania family whose members intermarried with other prominent families, including the Magee, Wray, and Darr families. Eleanor Gillespie was engaged to marry Hays King, a cousin of Mrs. R. B. Mellon, but King died shortly before the wedding was to have taken place. Eleanor subsequently married George Darr, a pioneer in the Western Pennsylvania oil industry who started in the oil brokerage business in 1874. Darr later became a stock and bond broker, president of Sharon Steel Company, and owner of coal lands. The painting was donated by Eleanor's niece, Elizabeth Gillespie Wray Wunder Firuski.
Related institution
J.J. Gillespie & Company
Related person
Eleanor Gillespie Darr
(1864 - 1913)
Related person
John Jones Gillespie
(1815 - 1886)
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