Attributed to Samuel Miller (1807 - 1853)

Boy in a Rocking Chair

Date1840-1850

DimensionsSight: 43 7/16 × 31 1/8 in. (110.3 × 79.1 cm)

Object numberN0429.1961

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

Photograph by Richard Walker

Label TextLittle is known of Samuel Miller except that he was born in Boston about 1807, lived in neighboring Charlestown where he was listed in 1852 as a portrait painter, and died of heart disease in Boston in 1853. Most of his sixteen known portraits are colorful, full-length likenesses of children. This unidentified boy sits in a rocking chair, holding a book titled Georgey open to an illustration of a bird. A mysterious lone wanderer is visible in the background, walking with a cane and carrying a white sack over his shoulder. Miller’s ability to combine decorative color and pattern, with charming childlike facial features, such as large eyes and full cheeks, gives his portraits considerable appeal.
Exhibition History“Is She or Isn’t He? Identifying Gender in Folk Paintings of Children,” Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, Sandwich, MA, May 13, 1995 – October 29, 1995.

“American Folk Art: Collecting from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, January 25, 2001 – March 24, 2001.

“Little Women, Little Men: Folk Paintings of Children from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA, September 22, 2006 – February 4, 2007; Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, October 29, 2005 – December 31, 2005.
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.116-117, illus. as no.69 on p. 117.

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