[photograph of a portrait of Patricia Donoho Hughes]

Patricia Donoho Hughes

MSA SC 1545-0900. 1987 by Cedric Egeli (b.1936) Commissioned by the Friends of Government House.

Patricia Donoho Hughes is the wife of Harry Hughes, the fifty-seventh governor of Maryland serving from 1979-1987. In order to make Government House "a place where visitors have the opportunity to expand their knowledge of Maryland and its history," Mrs. Hughes initiated an evaluation of the house and its contents. In consultation with the staff of the Maryland Historical Society, Mrs. Hughes oversaw the installation of seven period rooms, each designed to reflect a particular period of Maryland's history. Funded by private sources, this major decorative undertaking combined items from the state's collection along with borrowed pieces from other Maryland institutions. In addition to her interest in Government House, Mrs. Hughes was a key political advisor to her husband. In this portrait, she is shown among furnishings from the "Billy Baldwin" room of Government House, now the Conservatory, which featured the decorative aesthetic of the late Baltimore-born interior designer. The Hughes' have two daughters, Ann and Elizabeth.

The furnishings in the background of this painting are "Cat" (c. 1940), by Grace Turnbull; and "Standing Woman" (1959), by Reuben Kramer. The white slipper chair is a signature piece of the designer, Billy Baldwin.


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