WILLIAMS, Mrs Myron Clark (Anna Murphy Plater)
Description:
Oil on canvas, 45” x 36” (114 x 91.5 cm) (55.1/2” x 45.1/2” framed). Described by Town & Country, December 15, 1906 as follows: ‘The portrait of Mrs. Clark Williams is one that will attract most women. The face is intelligent, alive and sweet. Through the brown hair in the pompadour, there runs a silver strand. No jewels clasp the throat (clever lady!). The scarlet gown, something like the new flame color, is of chiffon and skilfully handled by the artist. In expressing the texture, the gleam here and there of satin ribbon trimming, detail is worked out just enough. Her fur boa has fallen from her shoulder, one hand is in the bushy black muff and the left arm and hand are done tenderly, the fingers looking so real where they touch the fur.’
Location:
Williams College Alumni Centre/Faculty Club, Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267, U.S.A.
Provenance:
Gift of the sitter’s husband.
Exhibition:
M. KNOEDLER & CO., 355, Fifth Avenue (corner of Thirty-fourth Street), New York, December 3 – 16, 1906, No. 2.
Bibliography:
American Art News, Vol 4. No. 18, February 10, 1906, New York, p. 7.
New York Herald, December 5, 1906
New York Herald, December 8, 1906
New York Evening Post, December 12, 1906
Town & Country, New York, December 15, 1906
Harpers Weekly, New York, May 15, 1909 (reproduced)
The sitter was born in Tennessee in 1874 to Thomas Plater (1824-1906) and Mary Louise Bugg Plater (1848-1902) and had six siblings. The sitter’s husband (born May 2, 1870; died December 18, 1946) became the managing Vice-President of the Columbia Trust Company in 1905. On October 23, 1907, he was appointed by Governor Charles Evans Hughes Superintendant of Banks. In November 1909, he was appointed New York State Comptroller to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Charles H. Gaus, and remained in office until the end of 1910. Afterwards he became President of the Windsor Trust Company and then of the Industrial Finance Corporation.
A Trustee Emeritus of Williams College, Dr. Williams was responsible for establishing endowment and scholarship funds, and he and his wife gave to Williams the Faculty House at a cost of $186,000. He founded the Williams Club in New York in 1913 amongst many other philanthropic acts.
Anna Plater married him on April 29th 1897 in Nashville, Tennessee, and they lived at Field Point Park, Greenwich, Connecticut. Her husband wrote a two volume autobiography called ‘The Story of a Grateful Citizen’ (1934). She died in 1966 in New York.
