Mary Hirst

ca. 1710

Attributed to Pepperell Limner American

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

Mary Hirst (1704 – 1789) holds in her hand a silver rattle set with a piece of red coral. This luxurious toy is an emblem of her age — coral was thought to ease the pain of an infant teething — and a demonstration of her family’s prosperity. The artist who painted this portrait remains unknown, but historians call him the “Pepperrell Limner” after portraits of the Pepperrell family in Kittery, Maine. Orphaned as a teenager, Hirst went to live with her grandfather, the prominent judge and diarist Samuel Sewall.

Mary married her childhood neighbor William Pepperrell in 1723. William was one of the wealthiest men in colonial New England and was named a British baronet for his military service during King George’s War (1744 – 48), making his wife Lady Mary Pepperrell.

Title Mary Hirst

Artwork Date ca. 1710

Artist Attributed to Pepperell Limner

Life Dates ----------

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 33 × 25 1/2 inches (83.8 × 64.8 cm) Framed: 40 3/16 × 32 3/8 × 2 7/8 inches (102.1 × 82.2 × 7.3 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Gift of Dexter M. Ferry, Jr.

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 48.163

Markings

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Provenance

descended in the family of Mary Hirst Pepperrell.
Goodspeed Bookstore (Boston, Massachusetts, USA).
Childs Gallery (Boston, Massachusetts, USA).
Old Print Shop (New York, New York, USA).
Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. (Detroit, Michigan, USA);
1948-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century American and English Decorative Arts. Exh. cat., Currier Gallery of Art. Manchester, NH, 1956.

Warren, W.L. “The Pierpont Limner and Some of his Contemporaries.” Connecticut Historical Society Bulletin 23, 4 (October 1958): p. 108 (fig. 23). [as Pepperell Limner]

American Decorative Arts from the Pilgrims to the Revolution. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1967, no. 119.

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