Artwork
Cora Livingston
Cora Livingston is an oil painting by the American Folk Art artist Charles Cromwell Ingham. It dates from 1833 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:falsely inscribed, reverse: Miss Coralie Livingston / Saml. F.B. Morse Pinxt
About this work
Technique & Style
As an oil painting from the early nineteenth century, it adheres to the standard medium and substrate conventions of the period's portraiture.
Charles Cromwell Ingham executed the portrait Cora Livingston in 1833 using oil paint on a canvas support. The work measures 91.4 cm in height and 71.1 cm in width. As an oil painting from the early nineteenth century, it adheres to the standard medium and substrate conventions of the period's portraiture.
The piece is currently held in the National Gallery of Art's Andrew W. Mellon Collection in Washington, D.C.
History & Provenance
The painting was created in 1833 by Charles Cromwell Ingham as an oil on canvas portrait measuring 91.4 cm in height and 71.1 cm in width. It entered the collection of Rose M. de Forest in New York, then passed on 2 August 1921 to Thomas B. Clarke of New York. Upon Clarke's death the work remained in his estate until 1936, when it was sold through M. Knoedler & Co. in New York to the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust in Pittsburgh.
The Trust gifted the painting to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1947, where it remains as part of the Andrew W. Mellon Collection.
The work was included in the 1928 exhibition Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries Collected by Thomas B. Clarke.
Overview
Charles Cromwell Ingham’s oil on canvas, titled Cora Livingston, dates to around 1833. The work portrays a seated woman in a red chair, her dark red dress and curled brown hair framing a poised figure who cradles a guitar. The composition balances color and form, presenting a quiet, intimate moment that reflects early nineteenth‑century portrait conventions.
Subject & Meaning
The sitter, identified as Cora Livingston, is depicted with a guitar, suggesting a personal affinity for music or a cultivated leisure activity typical of genteel women of the period. Her attire and coiffure signal a respectable social standing, while the relaxed posture conveys a sense of refinement and private contemplation within a domestic setting.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Charles Cromwell Ingham (1796 or 1797 – 10 December 1863) was an Irish-American portrait painter and later a founder of the New York National Academy of Design.
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