DEPEW, Mrs Chauncey M. (Elise Hegeman)
Description:
Life size in a dress with puff sleeves, facing left.
Location:
Present Whereabouts Unknown.
Exhibition:
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN, New York, November 1 – 22, 1894, in the ‘Loan Exhibition of Women’s Portraits’.
Bibliography:
Mail & Express, New York, Tuesday, March 7, 1893
New York Herald, July 9, 1893
New York World, Sunday, October 28, 1894 (Line illustration)
New York Times Supplement, Sunday, May 2, 1897
The sitter was born in New Mexico on November 16, 1848 and married Senator Depew on November 9, 1871. She died in New York on May 7, 1893. They had one son, Chauncey M. Depew, Jr., who was born in New York on July 7, 1872 and died 1931.
According to the Mail and Express, March 7, 1893, Muller-Ury had just begun work on a life-size portrait of the first Mrs. Depew. He had just finished the picture according to the New York Herald for July 9, 1893, which was two months after the death of the sitter. Mentioned in the New York Times Supplement, May 2, 1897, in an article about the home of Chauncey M. Depew at 43, West Fifty-fourth Street, New York.
There is a letter (artist’s papers) from Depew written from his home at 43, West 54th Street, New York, dated January 28, 1896 which says:
‘Dear Mr. Muller-Ury,
You have painted for me life size portraits of Mrs. Depew and of myself. I write to tell you how thoroughly I am satisfied with them both as likenesses and from an artistic point of view.
Very truly yours, Chauncey M. Depew.’
This is clearly evidence that this portrait was a pair to the 1890 portrait of Depew himself.
