Ruth Perkins Safford, Room Portraitist, (1892 - 1979) "Early Fall in the Back Yard" Gouache/Watercolor on Linen Gray Rag Paper Signed in Pencil - Lower Right Corner Image Size 16 X 12.5 inches Framed with glass: 22 X 18.5 Way before there was HGTV and tons of decorating ideas. There was Ruth Perkins Safford, who set out to document many of the great American interiors by watercolor. She painstakingly drew interior perspectives and then knitted the interior finishes and furnishings on to the paper. In this regard, she is best known for being the portrait painter of famous interiors of historic homes. She started painting interiors after one of her early interior paintings was on display in a frame shop where the late Andrew Mellon saw it. He said to the proprietor, "This is excellent work. Whoever painted this should do more like it." That chance remark changed her whole career. Mr. Mellon is most noted for ...