Girl in a Green Dress

Datec. 1845

DimensionsSight: 40 × 26 1/2 in. (101.6 × 67.3 cm)

Object numberN0385.1961

Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark

Photograph by Richard Walker

Label TextThe girl in this painting is rendered in Miller’s signature style. Presented in the flat frontal pose Miller preferred in his full-length portraits of children, the sitter’s face is painted in a stylized manner and features large eyes, individually painted eyelashes and full cheeks, while her arms and hands are rendered with less attention to detail. Miller embellishes and personalizes the likeness with a coral necklace, lacework, and embroidery as well as a white flower. The addition of the playful cat, an animal often accompanying girls in portraits, enlivens the scene in the painting.
BibliographyPaul S. D'Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans, "Folk Art's Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association," Cooperstown, NYSHA, 1987, pp.112-115, illus. as no. 67 on p. 115.

Holly Pyne Connor; Sarah Burns; Barbara Dayer Gallati; Lauren Lessing, Angels and Tomboys: Girlhood in Nineteenth Century America (exh. cat. Portland, OR: Pomegranate, 2012).

Stacy C. Hollander and Gary Laderman, Securing the Shadow: Posthumous Portraiture in America (exh. cat. New York, NY: American Folk Art Museum, 2016).

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