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Prior used bright colors in their costumes and accessories to enliven this simple portrait, as Octavia's dress, coral neckband and bracelet are painted red and Charles' striped shirt is painted in green. Reddish-pink paint was used on the ribbon tied to Octavia's necklace, on the flower in the miniature basket, and along the cloud-like edge of the darker background color that vertically divides the canvas. A heavy impasto is visible on the lacy edges of Octavia's dress and Charles' collar, the pink flowers, the whip handle and the buttons on Charles' shirt. The subjects' identities have yet to be verified in genealogical records.
Exhibition History“Artist and Visionary: William Matthew Prior Revealed,” American Folk Art Museum, New York, New York, January 24, 2013 – May 27, 2013; Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY, May 26, 2012 – December 31, 2012.
BibliographyJacquelyn Oak and Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Artist and Visionary: William Matthew Prior (exh. cat. New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2012).
Paul S. D'Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans, "Folk Art's Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association," Cooperstown, NYSHA, 1987, pp. 138-139, illus. as no. 83 on p. 139.
Artist
William Matthew Prior
(1806 - 1873)
Charles E. & Octavia C. Adams
Date1848
MediumOil on cardboard
DimensionsFramed: 20 × 26 3/16 × 2 1/4 in. (50.8 × 66.5 × 5.7 cm)
Sight: 16 1/4 × 22 3/8 in. (41.3 × 56.8 cm)
Object numberN0378.1961
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextPrior painted this likeness of the young Adams children at about the same time he was advertising his ability to complete such "flat" portraits in a one-hour sitting. The loose, swirling brushwork and the thickly applied paint in this portrait suggest the rapid execution which allowed the artist to compete with the daguerreotype. However, Prior conveyed the childlike features of the pair in their pudgy, dimpled faces and large, expressive eyes. Their cheeks are faintly flushed in pink, and their faces exhibit Prior's characteristic white highlighting around the nose, mouth and eyes. Also typical of the artist's "flat" style are the sitters' hands, which are depicted as stubby, rounded forms with lines of brown paint defining individual fingers and nails.Prior used bright colors in their costumes and accessories to enliven this simple portrait, as Octavia's dress, coral neckband and bracelet are painted red and Charles' striped shirt is painted in green. Reddish-pink paint was used on the ribbon tied to Octavia's necklace, on the flower in the miniature basket, and along the cloud-like edge of the darker background color that vertically divides the canvas. A heavy impasto is visible on the lacy edges of Octavia's dress and Charles' collar, the pink flowers, the whip handle and the buttons on Charles' shirt. The subjects' identities have yet to be verified in genealogical records.
Exhibition History“Artist and Visionary: William Matthew Prior Revealed,” American Folk Art Museum, New York, New York, January 24, 2013 – May 27, 2013; Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY, May 26, 2012 – December 31, 2012.
BibliographyJacquelyn Oak and Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Artist and Visionary: William Matthew Prior (exh. cat. New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2012).
Paul S. D'Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans, "Folk Art's Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association," Cooperstown, NYSHA, 1987, pp. 138-139, illus. as no. 83 on p. 139.
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