Cleveland Museum of Art

Mary Walker Waugh

William Holman Hunt

Date

1868

Medium

oil on fabric

Culture

England, 19th century

Department

Modern European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

William Holman Hunt painted this portrait of Mary Walker Waugh (1805–1886)—his mother-in-law—during a time of personal tragedy. Waugh’s daughter Fanny Waugh Hunt (1832–1866), the wife of the artist, had recently died following childbirth. References to loss of life infiltrate the composition: the sitter wears black mourning attire, and behind her is a screen decorated with red poppies, a traditional symbol of unconsciousness and lifelessness because of its pharmaceutical use as a source for opiates. In Victorian society, the red poppy also signified consolation. British novelist Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) once owned this portrait, which depicts his great aunt.

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