Mrs. Strother at the Piano

Description Strother, a native of Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), trained in New York and later in France and Italy. Returning to America in 1844, he spent a winter in Baltimore, and then settled in Martinsburg. Strother specialized in illustrations for books and magazines, most notably "Harper's Monthly." This example is believed to show the artist's first wife Anne seated at a piano in the Strother family's hotel in Berkeley Springs. It served as a basis for a wood-engraving appearing in John Esten Cooke's novel, "Ellie," or, "The Human Comedy," Richmond, 1855.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
7/15/1964	Treatment	re-housed
6/01/1971	Treatment	cleaned
5/02/1994	Treatment	cleaned; mounted

Exhibitions

• Private Lives: Nineteenth Century American Genre Drawings. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1994-1995.

Provenance William T. or Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Inscription] Bottom center: June 1855. / Berkeley Springs

Credit Acquired by William T. or Henry Walters