Celebrating The American Wing: American Portraits | Explore & Learn

Morse painted this full-length portrait of his eldest daughter, Susan Walker Morse (1819–1885), during the crucial years that he spent inventing the telegraph. Miss Morse was then about seventeen years old; she is shown with a sketchbook in her lap and pencil in hand with her eyes raised in contemplation. The portrait has long been called The Muse based on the observation of a critic in 1837 that "but for the modern costume, [Miss Morse] might pass for a Clio." Miss Morse is more likely a personification of the art of drawing or design. Her father drew on the full extent of his European training, taking from the works of Rubens and Veronese in what was to be an ambitious farewell to his career as an artist. The question of why Morse abandoned painting to pursue a career in science may never be settled, but it may be at least postulated that his most grandiose works, such as this one, must have appeared unfamiliar and somewhat strange to a visually unsophisticated public.

Roll over the image with your mouse to explore details of this painting in greater depth.

Related Works: 1 2 3

Object Menu

Detail 1 · Detail 2 · Detail 3

Full-screen image (28K)

Susan Walker Morse (The Muse), ca. 1836–37
Samuel F. B. Morse (1791–1872)
Oil on canvas; 73 3/4 x 57 5/8 in. (187.3 x 147.4 cm)
Bequest of Herbert L. Pratt, 1945 (45.62.1)

printing instructions

Photograph Credits