Portrait of Mrs. John Gellatly

Edith Rogers was the wife of the art collector and patron John Gellatly, who donated his significant collection of American and European painting and decorative art to the Smithsonian’s National Collection of Fine Arts (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) in 1929. Edith met John while he was enrolled in art classes, and they married in 1886. Mr. Gellatly was in the insurance and real estate business, and he and his wife were passionate about collecting art. Elizabeth Eleanor Greatorex captured Edith’s youthful beauty and fashionable sophistication in this portrait study, possibly painted during one of her art lessons with Greatorex.