• Title
  Mary Ann Piper and her children, ca. 1826 / by Augustus Earle
• Creator
  Augustus Earle, 1793-1838
• Call number
  ML 672
  Status: On display – Paintings from the Collection, Room 3, South Wall, no. 301
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  ca. 1826
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Paintings
• Reference code
  404723
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 painting - 195.1 x 121.7 cm., image ; 237.1 x 163.6 cm. (frame) - oil
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  Mary Ann Shears married Captain John Piper, military officer and public servant by special licence in 1816. It is believed they met and formed an attachment during Piper's term of service on Norfolk Island. -- Reference: Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol.2, 1788-1850. Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1967
• Scope and Content
  The children depicted in this painting are Thomas (b. 1816) dressed in black, William Sloper (b. 1822) who holds a drum and wears a tailored version of the frock and pantaloons boys wore until they were "breeched" around five years old, Eliza (b. 1818) who stands behind her mother, and Anne Christina Frances (b. 1820) who leans on the arm of her mother's chair. The girls are dressed in white muslin with pink sashes and coral necklaces.
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Artist died before 1955.
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• Description source
  
  Work is untitled. Title devised from further research provided for the publication `Reading the Rooms' in 2023.
  
• General note
  
  Previously titled, [Ann Piper and her children, ca. 1826 / oil painting by Augustus Earle]
  For a portrait of Captain Piper, the husband of Mary Ann Piper and her children, see ML 6
  
  For notes on the contents of this drawing, see J. Kerr, "A Woman of Substance" in Creating Australia, 200 years of art 1788-1988 / by the Art Gallery of South Australia ; Ed. & introduced by D. Thomas ; [Sydney] : International Cultural Corporation of Australia [and] Art Gallery Board of South Australia, 1988.
  
  Correspondence with the donors is located at PXn 306.
  
  A framed coloured photo. litho. of this work, presented by Vaucluse House in 1981, is located at ML 859.
  
  Frame filed at F 429
  Digital order no:a928600
• Attributions / conjectures
  
  Formerly attributed to Richard Read, this painting was accorded to Earle by Bernard Smith, see "Australian painting 1788-1970", B. Smith, Melbourne : Oxford University.
• Date note
  
  The work is dated from the time of Earle's stay in Australia (1825-1827).
• Name
  Piper family
  
• Subject
  Piper, Mary Ann, 1790?-1872--Portraits.
  Portraits, Australian--19th century.
  Portraits, Group--New South Wales.
  
• Topic
  colonial art
  
• Place
  Henrietta Villa (Point Piper, N.S.W.)
  
• Exhibited in
  
  Faces of Australia: image, reality and the portrait.
  A Rage for Curiosity
  The Picture Gallery 1
  Private Lives: Families of N.S.W.
  For Auld Lang Syne: Images of Scottish Australia from First Fleet to Federation
  Paintings from the Collection
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE3141827

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