Portrait of Frank Bottomly

Dateca. 1830

Attributed to W. Grieve (active ca. 1823)

MediumWatercolor and pencil on wove paper.

DimensionsPrimary Support: 6 x 7 7/8in. (15.2 x 20cm) and Framed: 7 7/8 x 9 3/4in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1958.300.21

DescriptionA full-length portrait of young boy in a landscape setting. He wears light grey long trousers with white stockings and black shoes and a white pin-striped vest with a large ruffled collar worn outside his short blue jacket, which has long sleeves and white buttons. He is blond with blue eyes and wears a blue cap on the back of his head. With his proper right hand he rolls a wooden hoop with a stick and in his proper left hand he holds a leash attached to a small, black and brown-orange dog behind him. Leafy trees are sketched loosely in pencil and brown watercolor to his left and right with a pale blue landscape terrain depicted broadly in the background. The foreground has a slight pale pink wash and below the figure is an inscription panel in the form of a ribbon or banner with scrolled ends.
The 1 1/8-inch reed-molded cherry frame is possibly original.
Label TextThis miniature portrait and its companion, a likeness of Jane Bottomly (accession no. 1958.300.22), may have been executed in conjunction with a Bottomly family record by the same artist, although the family record does not include Frank and Jane among the several children born to Samuel and Sarah Livermore Bottomly. The surmise is that Frank and Jane were children in a different, but closely related, branch of the family. Their portraits were executed on paper made in Worcester, Massachusetts, which was also where Samuel and Sarah Bottomly lived.
The two children's portraits and the family record are unsigned and are attributed to W. Grieve on the basis of their stylistic similarity to a double portrait in a private collection that is so inscribed (and dated 1823). The loose, sketchy quality and economy of brushwork evident in Grieve's work indicate that the artist was at ease with his materials and confident of his drawing ability.
InscribedIn red and black watercolor letters in a penciled swag at the bottom center of the primary support is "FRANK.BOTTOMLY./AGED 7. YEARS." Penciled outlines for some of these painted letters are visible behind and beside them.
MarkingsA watermark in the primary support reads "E BURBANK," signifying Elijah Burbank of Worcester, Mass., active ca. 1811-1834.
ProvenanceJ. Stuart Halladay and Herrel George Thomas, Sheffield, Mass. Halladay died in 1951, leaving his interest in their jointly-owned collection to his partner, Thomas. Thomas died in 1957, leaving his estate to his sister, Mrs. Albert N. Petterson, who was AARFAM's vendor.