Mater Dolorosa
Location:
Present Whereabouts Unknown.
Provenance:
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Courtland Penfield, Ravenhill, Philadelphia.
Exhibition:
M. KNOEDLER & CO., 355, Fifth Avenue, New York, January 13 – 23, 1908, No. 4
Bibliography:
Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, January 14, 1908
The New York Sun, January 18, 1908
Catholic News, New York, January 18, 1908
Town & Country, New York, January 25, 1908
The New York Sun, January 18, 1908, made the following comment: ‘What this painter calls a “Mater Dolorosa” a theatrical manager would announce as “the beautiful actress Miss Silkensobs in her pathetic role of Tears and Smiles.” An insincere picture.’ The Catholic News of the same date said it ‘…shows skilful and tender treatment.’ According to Town & Country, January 25, 1908, the picture was ‘warmly praised’ by the artist-critic Arthur Hoeber, but it has not been possible to establish whether his was a written review.
This picture was owned by Mr. Frederick Courtland Penfield, whose wife was painted by Muller-Ury as Mrs. Anne M. Walker who commissioned his first portrait of Pope Pius X in 1907. According to Mrs. MaryAnne Meirs Hutchinson (letter to the editor, January 8, 1995) the picture was listed in an inventory of pictures made after her death in 1932, and that it was subsequently donated to the Sisters of the Assumption who were given the mansion Ravenhill as a convent school. It was probably sold from there when the sisters gave up the building.
