Mrs John Freake and Baby Mary
Paula Petrik, Professor of History and Art History, George Mason University
Introduction
Seventeenth-century painters followed the artistic conventions of the day, customarily confining their work to pictures of adults or paired pictures of a husband and wife. The first image shows the later rendering of the portrait, as it appears today, an “updated” portrait painted in 1674; the second depicts a drawing adapted from a radiograph x-ray image, showing Mary Freake in the original version of the portrait painted in 1671. (A radiograph x-ray examination is a technique used by art historians to tease out indistinct details or uncover different renderings of a painting. When researchers prepared the Freake portrait for exhibition, they discovered an earlier version of the likeness of Mary Freake.)
Although the exact identity of the child in the picture remains uncertain, it is clear that Mary Freake already had six children by the time the portrait was first painted in 1671. She became a widow in 1675 when John Freake died in ship explosion in Boston Harbor. The inventory of his possessions at the time of death included, forty yards of ‘lemmon coloured silk’ valued at forty shillings per yard.”
[1] Susan E. Strickler, “Recent Findings on the Freake Portraits,” Worcester Art Museum Journal, Vol. 5 (1981-82), p. 54.
Assignments
1. What are the most obvious differences between the drawing adapted from the x-ray radiograph and existing portrait? Superimposition of the two images might help you sort out the differences.
2. Why do you think that Mary Freake wanted her portrait repainted?
3. What can you infer about the development of American family life from the portrait?
4. How is the portrait different from the stereotypical depictions of New England Puritans and Puritan life like:
a. Augusta Bascombe’s Puritan Thanksgiving.
b. 19th-century engraving Puritans Going to Church.
Resources
Worcester Art Museum - An excellent site containing examples and extensive discussions of pieces from the institution’s collections, especially the Freake portraits.