# "My First Painting"

**Mary Vaux Walcott** (born Philadelphia, PA 1860-died St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada 1940)  
ca. 1868  
watercolor on paper  
sheet: 2 3/4 x 2 7/8 in. (7.1 x 7.3 cm)

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1970.355.766. [The museum's record](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=26444).

## About this work

Mary Vaux Walcott painted this in about 1868. It is now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

### How it was made

- **Watercolour.** Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.

### [Mary Vaux Walcott](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/mary-vaux-walcott)

born Philadelphia, PA 1860-died St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada 1940

Mary Vaux Walcott came from a Philadelphia Quaker family and spent summers in the Canadian Rockies, where she photographed glaciers and began painting wildflowers in watercolour. In 1914 she married Charles Doolittle Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, which published her five-volume North American Wild Flowers in 1925. Her careful, botanically accurate plates made the series a landmark of American flower illustration.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- Real size: about 3 × 3 in (7 × 7 cm). The original is small: even the 8 × 10 in print shows it larger than life.
- Century: 19th century
- Subjects: Flowers, Botanical study
- Colour: white
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1944.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1944/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/my-first-painting-si-saam-1970-355-766).