Mother of Silence, 1933

Mary Weatherford: This painting is called Mother of Silence. Agnes Pelton painted it after she moved to the California desert, which is silent.

Narrator: Artist Mary Weatherford.

Mary Weatherford: Agnes referred to this in her diaries, in short, as M.O.S.. So this painting hung in her studio for many, many years, and when Agnes had a problem with a painting or with anything, she would ask this painting the Mother of Silence, what to do.

Agnes's early life was marked by silence. The family, her grandfather was involved, and her grandmother, in a terrible scandal that was splashed across The New York Times. A famous preacher of the day had an affair with her grandmother. And so, to save face, Agnes's grandfather, Tilton, had sued the guy for stealing away the affections of his wife, and he sued him for $100,000 in Brooklyn court. It ended in a hung jury, and so Agnes's grandfather moved away to Europe and spent the end of his days writing romance novels, having been an important person that would talk to even Abraham Lincoln. The family really stayed silent about this. So, then strangely enough, later Agnes paints this painting called Mother of Silence.