Mary Eleanor Van Mater

Maker Harvey Jenkins

Period1849

MediumOil on bed ticking

Dimensions56 × 43.75 in. (142.2 × 111.1 cm)

SignedInscribed on the reverse, "Mary Elanor / Van Mater Age 7 Years / H. Jenkins / paint . . .1849."

ClassificationsPortraits

Credit LineBequest of Gilbert T. Van Mater, 1965

Object number1986.510

DescriptionA nearly life-size portrait of a young girl with brown hair in long curls facing forward, she is wearing a white dress with off-the-shoulders neckline, white pantaloons trimmed with lace, and black shoes. She is depicted in a classical landscape with a round tower to her right, a classical urn on a pedestal to her left, three urns around her, and a variety of trees, shrubs, and plants, all against a dramatic sky with clouds and beams of sunlight.
Curatorial RemarksThe Jenkins portrait of Mary Eleanor Van Mater ranks among the artist’s most ambitious works. It is by far the largest canvas known, and one of the earliest as well, being dated 1849 on the reverse. That is the year that Jenkins first appeared in Monmouth County. The subject stands in a landscape full of backdrop props that imitates academic, high-styled portraits. They include a fanciful tower to the right, a pedestal and urn on the left, and other urn-shaped planters on both sides of the sitter. Trees, shrubbery, and a moody sky complete the complex composition.NotesMary Eleanor Van Mater posed for her nearly life-size portrait by Harvey Jenkins at the age of seven. She was born near Keyport in 1842, a daughter of Cyrenius Van Mater and Eleanor Hendrickson. In 1859, she married Benjamin H. Van Mater, a distant relative. He died young, so Mary Eleanor and her four children lived in Keyport with her father. She died of typhoid fever there in 1888 at the age of forty-two. Her obituary indicated that she was “well-known and highly respected.”

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