Florence Scott Libbey

Artist Jean MacLane (American, 1878-1964)

Date20th Century

DimensionsH: 49 3/4 in. (126.5 cm); W: 39 15/16 in. (101.5 cm);
(Framed) H: 56 3/4 in. (144.1 cm); W: 46 3/4 in. (118.7 cm)

MediumOil on canvas.

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Florence Scott Libbey

Object number

1938.22

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Libbey Court

Label TextPortraitist Jean MacLane had a successful career primarily painting women and children, including prominent figures such as Elizabeth, Queen of the Belgians and Frances Perkins, who was appointed the first woman Secretary of Labor by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In the early 1930s, she painted Florence Scott Libbey (1863–1938). Scott Libbey and her husband, Edward Drummond Libbey, generously provided the land and capital to build a permanent home for the Toledo Museum of Art in 1912. After her husband’s death in 1925, Mrs. Libbey became Vice President of the Museum. She renounced her life interest in a portion of her husband’s estate in order to build the Peristyle Theater and the School of Art and Design, a project that employed more than 3,000 during the Great Depression. Through their trusts, the Libbeys also provided the financial foundation that continues to help support the Museum’s general operations, educational programs, and art acquisitions.Published ReferencesCatalogue of the Fifth Annual Circuit Exhibition of the National Association of Portrait Painters Inc. 1915-1916 New York, American Fine Arts Society, 1916, p. 25, no. 31, repr. p. 49

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, p. 80, pl. 162.

McMaster, Julie A., The Enduring Legacy: A Pictorial History of the Toledo Museum of Art, Superior Printing, Warren, OH, 2001, repr. (col.) p. 29.

Exhibition HistoryGalleries of the American Fine Arts Society, New York, Fifth Annual Circuit Exhibition of the National Association of Portrait Painters, Nov. 6 - 28, 1915.