ARTIST: Maria Louisa Wagner (New York, 1815 - 1888)
TITLE: Portrait of Woman with Book
YEAR: 1878
MEDIUM: oil on canvas
CONDITION: Two patches. Small paint losses. Very minor craquelure. No visible inpaint under UV light. Normal wear along edges.
ART SIZE: 30 x 25 inches / 76 x 63 cm
FRAME SIZE: unframed (In-House framing available)
SIGNATURE: lower left
CATEGORY: old antique vintage painting for auction sale online
AD: ART WANTED: Consign, Trade In, Cash Offer
SKU#: 131032
US Shipping $90 + insurance.

BIOGRAPHY:
Siblings Daniel and Maria Louisa Wagner were two of thirteen children born to Frederick and Anna or Hannah Walwort Wagner. They lived and worked in New York City and other towns in New York state in the mid 19th century. The book "Women's Culture: American Philanthropy and Art" states that Maria Wagner took up portrait painting "to help care for her crippled brother," although a newspaper article written in 1888, the year both died, suggests it was Daniel who began painting, following a hip injury that left him permanently disabled, and who then taught his sister to paint. Daniel and Maria seem to have painted both as a team and separately. Before setting up a successful studio in the Dodworth Building in New York, they traveled the state seeking work, eventually earning commissions to paint members of the New York legislature in Albany, Martin Van Buren, Silas Wright, Daniel Webster, and Millard Fillmore and his family. The siblings died within a few months of each other.