Michener Art Museum

Mary Sarg Murphy


Mary Sarg Murphy, photo courtesy of James A. Michener Art Museum library
PAINTER
BORN: April 24, 1911, London, England
DIED: May 23, 1986, Siesta Key, Sarasota, Florida

Mary Sarg Murphy was a painter, illustrator and decorative artist. She was strongly influenced by her fun-loving father, Tony Sarg, a decorative artist, illustrator and puppeteer. Murphy began her art career decorating boxes and furniture for the Tony Sarg Shops in New Hope and in Nantucket, where the Sarg family spent their summers from 1923 on. She later designed fabrics, wallpapers, children's clothing and towels for the shops. Murphy became an accomplished portrait painter, and at one time did a series of portraits with the sitters dressed in colonial costume, advertised as "You are Your Ancestor." In the 1930s, she was well-known for her illustrations in such magazines as Today, Woman's Day, and Mademoiselle, as well as illustrating children's books. She created a popular series of cartoons based on Nantucket characters, which ran in two Nantucket papers and were later published as a collection called the Nantucket Blue Book.