Description:Portrait of Martha Vesta Payne (1842-1924), mother of the artist and wife of James Pegram Ward (1837-1894). She is seated in a wooden chair with a shawl around her shoulders and drapped over the arm of the chair. She is wearing a large black hat, high necked black dress with shear lace around the bodice.
History:The subject of the painting, Martha Vesta Payne (1842-1924), mother of the artist and wife of James Pegram Ward (1837-1894), moved with her children Alexander Pitzer Ward (1879-1954 and Nina Belle Ward (1885-1944) to 404 Cedar, Chattanooga, Tennessee after the death of her husband in 1894 where she lived until 1922 when she moved to Kalamazoo to live with her daughter Nina.
