Portrait of Elizabeth Greenleaf (1748-1752)

Date1750 (probably)

Attributed to Joseph Badger (1708 - 1765)

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOther (Unframed): 21 3/4 × 17 3/4in. (55.2 × 45.1cm) Framed: 25 3/8 × 21 1/4 × 1 1/2in. (3.8cm)

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1937.100.4,A&B

DescriptionOil portrait of young girl seen half-length with porthole. Young girl against a shaded grey-greenish background with architectural like spandrels, as though seeing girl through porthole. She wears a pink dress with long loose sleeves and large full white undersleeves or cuffs with lace edging. The neckline is square with white lace edging and a V shaped white apron front reaching to her waist with a full white apron with white lace border below. She wears a ring with four pearls on it on the second finger of her right hand and also holds a pear in that hand which picks up the colors of her dress, she points at or touches this pear with her left forefinger. Her face is a long oval with pink cheeks and a Cupid's bow mouth and hazel-blue eyes. She appears to have blonde hair, but it is almost completely concealed by her white mobcap with pansies, and white, red and tiny blue flowers decorating it. Despite much over-painting, this portrait still has a great deal of charm and appeal. Muslin cap, low-necked short sleeved dress of rose-pink with wide cuffs and wide muslin ruffles, and a stomacher of white with a white apron.
Label TextJoseph Badger was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts on March 14, 1707/1908. Nothing is known about his early training as a glazier and house painter, the profession he claimed throughout his lifetime. The artist moved with his family to Boston in 1733. It was probably there that Badger's abilities and interests in portrait painting were developed through contact with artists like John Smibert, Peter Pelham and Thomas Johnston. None of Badger's portraits is signed, and attributions to him are based on surviving portraits documented by eighteenth-century records. Elizabeth Greenleaf was the daughter of Dr. John and Priscilla Brown Greenleaf of Boston. She was born on December 29, 1746 and died in 1752.
ProvenanceFrank Buckingham, Plymouth, Mass; Katrina Kipper, Accord, Mass. Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Given to C.W. in 1939 by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.