The Blue Gown (Portrait of Ethel Coe) (1899): Art, History and Details

The Blue Gown (Portrait of Ethel Coe) (1899) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Martha S. Baker (American, 1871–1911).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Martha S. Baker was best known for painting portrait miniatures on ivory. The sitter in this example was not only a fellow artist, but likely one of her former students. Interestingly, the miniature remained in Baker’s possession at the time of her death and was later gifted by her relatives to the museum.

Object facts

• Title: The Blue Gown (Portrait of Ethel Coe)
• Date: 1899
• Creator attribution: Martha S. Baker (American, 1871–1911)
• Culture: America, late 19th century
• Type: Portrait Miniature
• Technique: watercolor on ivory
• Dimensions: Diameter: 10 cm (3 15/16 in.); Diameter of frame: 10.8 cm (4 1/4 in.)
• Collection: American - Painting
• Department: American Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1915.142

A detail from the museum

A handwritten label on the back of this portrait miniature revealed the sitter’s identity.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Baker

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Permanent Collection Installations.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 66, no. 1 (2026): 14-15.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.