Description:Mrs. Marx is shown in a hip-length seated pose. She has dark brown hair parted in the middle and surrounding her face. Her head is covered with a filmy white cap, with long tabs tied under the chin. She has dark eyebrows and dark eyes and faces slightly to the left. She wears a dark, off-the-shoulder, long-sleeved dress. Rosy color is added over the shoulders and bosom by a filmy scarf. She wears a gold ring on each forefinger and holds a white handkerchief. The background is dark except for a barely lighted distant horizon. The recessed molding frame is painted with a greyish gold and ornamented with raised decorations along the inner moldings. The wood is reddish.
History:This portrait has been given to the museum by the Estate of Lucy Strickland. It is hanging in our Myer Myers exhibit (Myer was her father) and will be available to researchers or any interested party at any time. The museum also owns three pieces of Myer's silver, and was recently given his family bible with births and deaths recorded in his own hand. Previously this painting of an early Richmond, VA resident was purchased in the 1920s by the former owner's aunt at an estate sale. The previous owner, Lucy Strickland, inherited it. It was cleaned and restored in 1975 by Marion Junkin, Chair of Fine Arts and artist at Washington & Lee University.
Notes:Rabbi Malcolm Stern of the American Jewish Archives said that this lady was born in New York City on June 10, 1769, and died in Richmond, VA on March 21, 1837. He believed she had also been subject of a photograph, but he had not located it by 1975. The subject's husband, Joseph Marx, was born in Bremen, Germany, circa 1772 and died in Richmond July 12, 1840. In 2000 a handsome large portrait of Joseph was the property of and hanging in the Valentine Museum, Richmond, as part of a Richmond collection. Two of the couple's several children are subjects of a companion painting #815.
