Portraitist Jean MacLane had a successful career painting primarily women and children, including prominent figures such as Elizabeth, Queen of the Belgians, and Frances Perkins, who was appointed the first woman Secretary of Labor by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In the early 1930s she painted Florence Scott Libbey (1863–1938). Libbey and her husband, Edward Drummond Libbey, generously provided the land and capital to build a permanent home for the Toledo Museum of Art in 1912.

After her husband’s death in 1925, Mrs. Libbey became vice president of the museum. She renounced her life interest in a portion of her husband’s estate to build the Peristyle Theater and the School of Art and Design, a project that employed more than 3,000 people during the Great Depression. Through their trusts, the Libbeys also provided the financial foundation that continues to help support the museum’s art acquisitions.

Image description: A vertical painting of a White, middle-aged woman with blue eyes and rosy lips and cheeks. She sits atop dark fabric against a backdrop composed primarily of brown, cream, peach, and lilac hues. Her gray-and-white hair is pulled up off her neck, showcasing a strand of pearls. She wears a draped, 1930s-style periwinkle-blue dress with an inset bodice and capped sleeves of white, translucent fabric. Her left hand rests on the edge of her seat, and her right hand holds a floppy hat with a pink flower against her knee.