Portrait of Jennie Walters Delano

Jennie (1853-1922) was the daughter of William T. Walters and the sister of Henry Walters, the founder of this museum. In 1876, against the strong objections of her father (who had intended her to remain his companion in his advancing years), she married Warren Delano III at the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore. The Delanos resided in Orange, New Jersey, and later in New York City. Jennie, who has been recalled as short in stature and full in figure, was an early feminist.

William Jacob Baer was born in Cincinnati in 1860, where he was trained in lithography. In 1880 he traveled to Munich to study drawing and painting at the Royal Academy. When he returned to the United States, he lived in New Jersey where he taught drawing and painting at Princeton University. In 1893 he moved to New York and where he first painted portrait miniatures; by 1894 he had given up easel painting all together to focus exclusively on this genre. He helped found the American Society of Miniature Painters, and is considered instrumental in the revival of miniature at the end of the 19th century. Baer exhibited both nationally and internationally, at the Exposition Universelle (1900), Pan-American Exposition (1901), Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904), and the Panama-Pacific Exposition (1915), where he work was well received. He seems to have found particular success with Henry Walters and his relatives. The Walters Art Museum holds six works on ivory by the artist.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Laura Delano; Walters Art Museum, December 31, 1965, by gift.