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Margaret Willis (Mrs. Robert) Hartshorne
Margaret Willis (Mrs. Robert) Hartshorne
Margaret Willis (Mrs. Robert) Hartshorne

Margaret Willis (Mrs. Robert) Hartshorne

Maker
Period1909
MediumWatercolor on ivory, gold, glass, velvet, leather
DimensionsImage: 4 × 3 in. (10.2 × 7.6 cm)
InscribedEngraved on the back of the gold miniature case "M.W.H. / 1909"
SignedSigned by the artist on the bottom "Laura Hills"
ClassificationsPortrait Miniatures & Silhouettes
Credit LineGift of Mary Minturn Adams in memory of her Hartshorne Ancestors, 2018
Object number2018.10.11
DescriptionA large oval miniature portrait of Margaret Willis Hartshorne set in a decorative tinted green, yellow, and pink gold floral frame with a heavy bezel. The frame includes a large decorative barrel loop at the top. The frame rests in a leather storage case lined with mauve velvet. Margaret Willis Hartshorne poses in almost full face view. The blue eyed, pink cheeked sitter wears her pale blonde hair upswept and curled. Margaret wears an elaborate reception gown of white silk with short sleeves and a low rounded neckline. She also wears a gold neck chain attached to an elaborate oval brooch and pendant, both set with a center stone appearing to be ruby. The sitter poses against a soft stippled mauve background.
Curatorial RemarksArtist Laura Coombs Hills (1859 - 1952) was a New England artist from Newburyport, MA. She became one of the leading painters of portrait miniatures on ivory during that medium's revival period. From 1890 to 1933, she executed 369 miniatures. By the mid 1920s, she had moved on to floral works in pastel, for which she is most widely recognized today. Hills produced three portraits for the family: one of Robert, one of his wife, Margaret Willis Hartshorne (see accession number 2018.10.11), and one of Robert's grandfather Robert Hartshorne (see accession number 2018.10.10).NotesMargaret Willis Hartshorne was born on 24 September 1868, the daughter of William P. Willis (b. 1842) and Sarah Caroline Davenport (1842 - 1924) of Flushing, NY, She married Robert Hartshorne at St. George's Episcopal Church in Flushing on 16 April 1895. They were the parents of two children: Mary Minturn Hartshorne (1897 - 1978) and Richard Hartshorne (1900 - 1958). After a lengthy honeymoon trip in Europe, the Hartshornes settled into a routine life of living in New York during the winter months with summers at the ancestral Portland estate near Highlands, NJ. For many years the Hartshornes maintained their city residence at the Mayfair on Park Avenue at 57th Street. Later, the family took apartments at 955 Lexington Avenue. By the Depression years of the 1930s, the Hartshorne family ceased using the main Portland estate building, even though it was fully furnished. Instead, they stayed in one of the smaller houses on the estate when down from the city. Among her many charitiable interests, Margaret Willis Hartshorne donated a gallery in memory of her late husband Robert in the new museum and library building of the Monmouth County Historical Association located in Freehold. Walnut boards from trees cut on the Portland estate were used to create elaborate paneling for the space which has been known since as the Hartshorne Room.
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