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• 20th Century American Painting

• Portrait of Margaret L. Fuller , 1910
• oil on canvas
• 34 in. x 30 in. (86.36 cm x 76.2 cm)

• Salem, MA Frank Weston Benson  (Salem, MA, 1862 - 1951, Salem, MA)
• American

• Bequest of Mary Fuller Russell, 1996.1

• Not on View

Frank W. Benson was a prominent American Impressionist and a leading painter in Boston at the turn-of-the-century. Portraits of wealthy New Englanders and scenes of his own children in summery landscapes became Benson’s frequent subjects, and they earned him considerable public praise.  One of the most widely exhibited and honored painters of his generation, Benson was a founding member the Ten American Painters. This progressive and cosmopolitan group of Impressionists included Edmund Tarbell, Childe Hassam, and Willard Metcalf, all of whom are represented in the Currier’s collection.

The sitter, Margaret L. Fuller (neé Margaret L. French), a native and life-long resident of Manchester, sits elegantly poised in a chair set before a landscape. The painting was commissioned at the time of Margaret’s engagement in 1909.  The Fuller family has special ties to the Currier Museum of Art.  Margaret was the mother of Henry Melville Fuller for whom the east pavilion is named. Benson also painted a portrait of Mrs. Fuller′s daughter, Mary, in 1915.