Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes

Cecilia Beaux American
1898
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 771
In this work, Beaux, an esteemed portrait and figure painter, depicted Anson Phelps Stokes (1838–1913) and his wife, Helen Louisa Stokes (1846-1930), in their Madison Avenue residence. The unconventional composition—foregrounding the woman, with the man relegated to the rear—echoes Sargent’s portrayal of the sitters’ son and daughter-in-law, Edith Minturn Phelps Stokes, painted in London the previous year (38.104). Beaux followed her depiction of the elder Stokeses—her first New York commission—with one of Minturn Stokes alone. Such multiple commissions among painters were common during the 1890s, a popular decade for American portraiture.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes
  • Artist: Cecilia Beaux (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1855–1942 Gloucester, Massachusetts)
  • Date: 1898
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 72 1/16 x 39 7/8 in. (183 x 101.3 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of the family of the Rev. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes, 1965
  • Object Number: 65.252
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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