Samuel F. B. Morse / Susan Walker Morse (The Muse) / ca. 1836-1837

Samuel F. B. Morse
Susan Walker Morse (The Muse)
ca. 1836-1837
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Creator Name: Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
Creator Nationality: North American; American
Creator Role: Artist
Creator Dates/Places: 1791-1872
Creator Name-CRT: Samuel F. B. Morse
Title: Susan Walker Morse (The Muse)
View: Full View
Creation Start Date: 1836
Creation End Date: 1837
Creation Date: ca. 1836-1837
Object Type: Paintings
Materials and Techniques: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 73 3/4 x 57 5/8 in. (187.3 x 147.4 cm)
AMICA Contributor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Owner Location: New York, New York, USA
ID Number: 45.62.1
Credit Line: Bequest of Herbert L. Pratt, 1945
Rights: http://www.metmuseum.org/
Context:

The full-length portrait of Susan Walker Morse (1819-1885), the eldest daughter of the artist, was painted during the crucial years of the invention of Morse's telegraph (ca. 1835-37). The painting shows the girl at about the age of seventeen, sitting with a sketchbook in her lap and pencil in hand with her eyes raised in contemplation. Although traditionally described as a Muse, the figure is more likely a personification of the art of drawing or design. Morse drew on the full extent of his European training, taking from the works of Rubens and Veronese in what was to be an ambitious farewell to his career as an artist. Stymied by a lack of financial success, he abandoned painting for science and inventing. This painting was first exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1837, where it won enthusiastic praise. Susan married Edward Lind in 1839 and moved to his sugar plantation in Puerto Rico, returning often to New York to spend extended periods with her father, who had been left a widower when Susan was just six. She gradually grew less and less happy with her husband and plantation life. Lind died in 1882; in 1885, Susan set out to return to New York permanently but tragically was lost at sea.

AMICA ID: MMA_.45.62.1
AMICA Library Year: 2000
Media Metadata Rights: Copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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