Photograph: Gary Wayne Gilbert

Painter, author, illustrator, decorator, and inventor, John La Farge (1835–1910) is best known for his murals (in Boston’s Trinity Church, and New York’s Union League Club, for instance) and for his stained glass windows, including the Peacock window in the Worcester Art Museum. In 1860 he married Margaret Mason Perry (1839–1925), granddaughter of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of the War of 1812. She and La Farge had 10 children, including the theologian John La Farge, SJ (1880–1963). This portrait of the artist’s wife (oil on canvas; 23 3/8 x 20 inches), was done shortly after their marriage. It is one of nine works by La Farge given to Boston College in 2004 by William Vareika ’74 and his wife, Alison.