llen byWaldo Peirce. elow rnie Newcanan,Manfred chwart ,Waldo Peirce,Clara chwart , llen Peirce. For moreWaldo coverage,see his Facebook page run by his grandsonWill facebook.com waldo.peirce. the arts 64 p o r t l a n d monthly maga ine courtesy of the peirce family; transcriBed uote from kathleen curry ia roBert f. Bro n s inter ie for the archi es of american art, smithsonian institution well-known cafe or restaurant where Ellen waited tables. It was during wartime. The romance started there. She preferred the quiet life in Maine, but she kept a pied-à-terre in Manhattan. After they got married, she modeled for Waldo, as did his kids. There was no escaping that job in our family! Her painting style resembled Waldo’s sometimes. Sometimes it was quite different.” Art writer Sarah Sargent of Virgin- ia, who knew Waldo and Ellen, dates their marriage to 1946. “They seemed genuinely devoted to each other. She was yin to his yang. A slight, graceful woman, she was quiet, much younger, and a serious painter in her own right. With her, he’d finally met his match, and their 24-year marriage endured until his death.” eanwhile, anoth- er mysterious bit of flotsam on the inter- net suggests their creative relationship might have been even deeper: “Wal- do Peirce… came to live in Newbury- port for a while… They were painting my daughter’s portrait at the time. The same portrait, I might add, that turned out to be something. Waldo would work in the morning and his wife would work on it sometimes in the af- ternoon. Keep that quiet.” ■