Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Johanna Glover Bird (1758-1815)
1804
Benjamin Greenleaf (1769-1821)
USA: Massachusetts or Maine
Oil on pine panel
Panel: 16-1/8"h x 12-1/4"w x 1/2"d; frame: 18"h x 14-3/4"w x 1"d
Museum Purchase
98.064.2a-b

Bust-length portrait of Johanna Glover Bird; oil on pine panel, portrait of a woman wearing a white cloth cap with ribbon, dark dress with white shawl, and a small stick pin on the shawl; inscribed on the verso in Greenleaf's hand: "Mrs. Johanna Bird Agd. 46/ Painted by Benjn. Greenleaf 1804."

Artist Benjamin Greenleaf depicted Johanna Glover Bird (1757-1815) at the same time as her husband, Aaron Bird (1756–1822), in 1804. For her likeness, Mrs. Bird donned clothes and jewelry that spoke to her prosperity and knowledge of prevailing fashions. Ribbons and lace decorate her snowy white cap. She also chose to have her portrait taken wearing a necklace of gold beads and a gold pin anchored to the white scarf around her neck. For further information, see blog posts, May 28, 2020, https://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/2020/05/well-matched-masonic-portraits-of-couples.html; and October 28, 2014 http://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/2014/10/opening-november-22-2014-every-variety-of-painting-for-lodges-decorated-furniture-paintings-and-ritu.html