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The individual personalities of the sitters, difficult to convey in profile portraiture, are somewhat evident here. The parents flank their four children and give an emotional as well as compositional unity to the scene. This sense of communication is also apparent in the attention bestowed on the baby by both the mother and the child at her side. With an eye toward accuracy, the artist carefully included details such as the cast-iron wheels on the pull toy at the bottom center of the picture, the well-outlined drawings in the geography book held by the oldest boy and the meticulously-rendered pieces of furniture. The brilliant blue costumes of the two children standing in the center of the scene are complemented by the red color of the baby's dress, pull toys and upholstery of the unoccupied chair and footstool.
Exhibition History“Is She or Isn’t He? Identifying Gender in Folk Portraits of Children,” Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, Sandwich, MA, May 13, 1995 – October 29, 1995.
ProvenanceFound in Rockland, Maine; Mr. and Mrs. Howard Lipman, Wilton, Connecticut; Mr. Stephen C. Clark, Sr., Cooperstown, New York
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. 208-209, illus. as no. 152 on p. 209.
Artist
Unidentified Artist
(American)
Maine Family
Datec. 1850
MediumWatercolor on wove paper
DimensionsSight: 11 3/4 × 14 5/8 in. (29.8 × 37.1 cm)
Object numberN0098.1961
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextThis family portrait is reminiscent of the work of the watercolorists Joseph H. Davis and J. Evans. In a similar manner to those painters this unidentified artist rendered this composition as an interior scene, probably deriving elements from English conversation pieces and silhouette groups.The individual personalities of the sitters, difficult to convey in profile portraiture, are somewhat evident here. The parents flank their four children and give an emotional as well as compositional unity to the scene. This sense of communication is also apparent in the attention bestowed on the baby by both the mother and the child at her side. With an eye toward accuracy, the artist carefully included details such as the cast-iron wheels on the pull toy at the bottom center of the picture, the well-outlined drawings in the geography book held by the oldest boy and the meticulously-rendered pieces of furniture. The brilliant blue costumes of the two children standing in the center of the scene are complemented by the red color of the baby's dress, pull toys and upholstery of the unoccupied chair and footstool.
Exhibition History“Is She or Isn’t He? Identifying Gender in Folk Portraits of Children,” Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, Sandwich, MA, May 13, 1995 – October 29, 1995.
ProvenanceFound in Rockland, Maine; Mr. and Mrs. Howard Lipman, Wilton, Connecticut; Mr. Stephen C. Clark, Sr., Cooperstown, New York
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. 208-209, illus. as no. 152 on p. 209.
On View
Not on view
