Susan Walker Morse (The Muse)

The full-length portrait of Susan Walker Morse (1819–1885), the eldest daughter of the artist, was painted during the crucial years of the invention of Morse's telegraph (ca. 1835–37). The painting shows the girl at the age of roughly seventeen, sitting with a sketchbook on her lap and a pencil in hand with her eyes raised in contemplation. Although traditionally described as a Muse, the figure is more likely a personification of the art of drawing or design. Morse drew from the full extent of his European training, taking from the works of Rubens and Veronese in what was to be an ambitious farewell to his career as an artist. Deterred by a lack of financial success, he abandoned painting for science and inventing. This painting was first exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1837, where it was granted enthusiastic praise. Susan married Edward Lind in 1839 and moved to his sugar plantation in Puerto Rico, often returning to New York to spend extended periods with her father, who had been left a widower when Susan was just six. She became gradually unsatisfied with her married life in the plantations. Lind died in 1882. In 1885, Susan set out to return to New York permanently but was tragically lost at sea.