Miss Martha Levy at the Spinet
| Artist | Thomas Sully (American, 1783–1872) |
|---|---|
| Title | Miss Martha Levy at the Spinet |
| Date | 1810 |
| Medium | Oil on panel |
| Dimensions | Framed: 30 1/4 × 25 1/4 × 5 1/2 in. (76.8 × 64.1 × 14 cm) Support: 23 1/16 x 18 in. (58.6 x 45.7 cm) |
| Credit Line | Morton and Marie Bradley Memorial Collection, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 92.196 |
| This artwork is currently off display. You may be able to see this artwork by filling out an art viewing room request. | |
A young woman standing at the spinet turning the pages in her music book, with a red stool by her side. She is wearing a long white dress with a long pink sash tied in a bow.
Martha Levy descended on her father’s side from Moses Raphael Levy, a prominent member of the tiny Jewish community in late seventeenth-century New York. Martha's mother was Protestant and she was raised as an Episcopalian, reflecting the high rate of intermarriage and conversion among Jews in early American society. Her father, Moses Levy, a Philadelphia judge, commissioned this portrait from Thomas Sully, the foremost American portraitist of the era. Sully had just returned from London, where he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and mastered the fluid, elegant style cultivated by British portraitists.
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
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"Miss Martha Levy at the Spinet | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=92.196