Attributed to Adelaide Cole Chase (1868-1944). Portrait of Elizabeth Stickney Cheney, Circa 1905. Oil on canvas, (48 x 36 inches), in a frame with berried foliate decoration, the reverse of the frame with several old labels, one inscribed "Museum of Fine Arts/ 2376," another "C.F. Kaufmann/ 32 Marlboro St."Frame: H: 62 in., W: 50 in., D: 4.75 in.Note: Elizabeth Stickney Cheney (1839-1922) was the wife of Benjamin P. Cheney, founder of a company that eventually became American Express. In 1864 he built 32 Marlborough St. in Boston's Back Bay (now the site of the First Lutheran Church), where his wife, daughter Elizabeth "Lillie" Cheney and her husband Carl Friedrich Kaufmann continued to live after his death. An earlier residence, Elm Bank, in Wellesley is now the home of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. The family also had a summer house, the Needles, in Peterborough, New Hampshire. As a gift to the area, Elizabeth and her daughter donated the funds needed to enable construction of a hospital there in 1919, the present day Monadnock Community Hospital.Adelaide Cole Chase, daughter of artist Joseph Foxcroft Cole, studied at the Boston Museum School under edmund Tarbell and Frank W. Benson. In 1901 she had her first major exhibition, going on to win several prizes and exhibiting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the National Academy of Design in New York. Chase became a popular society portraitist in the early 20th century, known particularly for her work with women and children.Literature: For additional information on Adelaide Cole Chase, see Erica Hirshler, "A Studio of Her Own: Women Artists in Boston 1870-1940", Boston: MFA Publications, 2001, published in conjunction with the Museum of Fine Arts' groundbreaking exhibition.

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