Boy Holding Dog

Dateca 1835

Attributed to Milton William Hopkins (1789-1844)

MediumOil on tulip poplar panel

DimensionsUnframed: 20 3/4" x 17 1/2" and Framed: 25 3/4" x 22 1/2"

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1941.100.1

DescriptionA half length portrait of a young boy turning slightly to the right. Under his right arm he holds a brown dog (puppy). The boy has enormous brown eyes, a high forehead and is dressed in a blue jacket and darker blue pants, with a wide collared white shirt and blue tie. The brown and white dog gazes straight ahead out of large, wide open eyes. The solid background is painted brown, the artist used a thin pigment, thus areas of the wood panel show through.
Label TextThe manner in which the lower part of this image is compressed may indicate that the artist painted the sitter's head on the panel before he decided to include the dog and much of the child's lower body. Although this boy is unidentified, his portrait corresponds closely to Hopkins's portrait of Marietta Ryan (1829-1901), which is privately owned. The two sitters may have been siblings. The Ryan family lived in Medina, Orleans County, New York.
ProvenancePurchased from M. Knoedler & Co. by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, AARFAM's donor.