Portrait of Fannie Merritt McClung
Object number2013.119.2
Artist
Maurice Ingres
Date1908
MediumCanvas; Oil paint; Wood
Credit LineGift of Samuel A. McClung III
DescriptionFramed oval-shaped, waist-length, oil painting on canvas of a Caucasian woman with brown hair and her proper left hand resting on her hip. Domestic background that includes two frames hanging on the wall. Woman is wearing a black hat with white feathers, white lace long-sleeved blouse, light purple dress, brown mink stole, and has a brown fur muff on her proper right hand. Set in a brown, wooden frame with raised grooves around the edge.Dimensions42.5 x 36 x 3 in. (108 x 91.4 x 7.6 cm)SignedSignature painted at left center "Maurice Ingres / 9".
Historical NotesJudge Samuel A. McClung and Fannie Merritt McClung were prominent members of Pittsburgh society. The Judge grew up in Western Pennsylvania and gained his reputation as a jurist early in his twenty-year tenure. The year after his appointment in May 1891 to the Third Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, he presided over the trial of Alexander Berkman. His wife Fannie McClung grew up in Cherry Valley, New York where the McClungs had a summer home. The Judge passed away in 1915. Judge McClung and his wife Fannie Merritt McClung were painted by Maurice Ingres, a French artist who was commissioned in 1908 to paint the judges of Westmoreland County for the courthouse as well as wall and ceiling murals. Samuel and Fannie’s eldest daughter Isabella had a life-long friendship with Pulitzer Prize winning author Willa Cather, who lived with the McClung’s in their Pittsburgh home for many years. Donor Samuel A. McClung III is a descendent of the Mellon’s as well as the McClungs.
Related person
Fannie Merritt McClung
Related person
Samuel Alfred McClung
(1845 - 1915)
On View
On viewCollections
Guarantee Manufacturing Company
1999
