Mary B. Tucker (dates unknown)

Young Man: inscribed recto, bottom right, ink: Mary B. Tucker. 1844; on book spine: Bible; on open book, left page: But now commandeth all men every … / to repent Think not to ... ; right page: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after/ [ ]ness for they shall be filled./ [illegible] / For they shall

Don and Faye Walters, Goshen, Indiana, 1985
David A. Schorsch, Greenwich, Connecticut

"American Radiance: Highlights of the Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum," de Menil Gallery at Groton School, Groton, Massachusetts, October 15 - December 15, 2002
"Women Only: Folk Art by Female Hands," New York, American Folk Art Museum, April 6-September 12, 2010

American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 70, figs. 39A-B

Overall condition very good; small repair extreme bottom near man's hand.
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A growing number of watercolor portraits can confidently be attributed to Mary B. Tucker, based on a small group of signed and dated examples, of which this portrait of an unidentified man is one.¹  Conjecture about the identity of the artist has placed her in Boston and the Concord-Sudbury area of Massachusetts, but no firm documentation has revealed reliable biographical information.²The watercolors fall into two primary groups—profiles and frontal portraits—executed on large-format sheets of paper. This pair exemplifies several conventions typical of the frontal portraits. The figures are placed on a light gray background wash, against which the dark clothes and hair provide a sharp contrast to the lighter elements: white shirt, lace collar and cuffs, letter. In large, glovelike hands, the sitters hold props, which in this case include a Bible, a sprig of flowers, and a letter. Heavy shading along the sides of the noses and below the mouths delineates features, and eyes are clear but empty, seeming to see nothing. The portraits continue a tradition associated with the large-scale, half-length portrait watercolors jointly worked by Samuel Addison and Ruth Whittier Shute, picturing a modest segment of society. -S.C.H. 

¹ In addition to the signed portrait in the Esmerian Collection, five portraits that bear Mary B. Tucker's name are cited in Heslip and Moore, Window into Collecting, p. 136, nn. 2, 3.
² [Ibid., P.136, n. ]. Moore cites speculation by Charles Knowles Bolton of the Boston Athenaeum that Mary Tucker might be the daughter of N athaniel Tucker and the wife of Rudolph Geyer, of Boston. David A. Schorsch suggests the watercolors were executed in the Concord-Sudbury area of Massachusetts, but without supporting evidence; see Schorsch, American Folk Art: Selected Examples from the Private Collection of the Late Edith Gregor Halpert (New York: David A. Schorsch, 1994), p. 27. This information is repeated in Schorsch, Masterpieces, p. 56.