Portrait of Eva Smith Cochran

Eva Smith Cochran was a local philanthropist who lobbied and contributed funds to save Philipse Manor Hall, the seventeenth-century historic site in downtown Yonkers. The daughter of carpet manufacturer Alexander Smith, Cochran and her family lived in Duncraggan, which stood next door to Samuel Untermyer’s estate until the early twentieth century.

Théobald Chartran was a French artist who traveled to the U.S. regularly to paint society portraits, including a painting of Washington Roebling, chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, which is in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. The dark background, with its intimation of classical architecture, is typical of mid-nineteenth century French portraiture.