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| Helen Bigelow Merriman, 1908. by Cecelia Beaux (1855-1942) |
"The portrait of Helen Bigelow Merriman was painted in 1908. Merriman was chosen as a subject because she was a woman of society, and also an artist herself. Yount mentioned that Merriman was ten years Beaux’s senior and withdrew from the Boston art world after her marriage in 1874 and birth of her child in 1876 and focused on writing. Beaux, on the other hand, could not reconcile her career with marriage and motherhood, and therefore chose to remain single. Yount reminded us that the need to choose between career or marriage was a frequent hurdle for women artists in the 1870’s." -Worcester Women's History Project
