Possibly Jean MacDonald Lee Myers (?-?)

Dateca. 1850

Possibly by John James Trumbull Arnold (1812 - ca. 1865)

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 30 x 26 3/4in. (76.2 x 67.9cm) and Framed: 37 x 33 1/2in.

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1931.100.5

DescriptionA full-length portrait of a girl standing in a landscape against a gray background. She wears a blue dress with a triple-strand necklace of gold beads around her throat. A row of six gold and black rosette buttons runs vertically down the front of her dress. Similar buttons hold the trimming above her sleeves at the shoulders. The neckline is scooped, and the sleeves short, with the same trimming at sleeves and neck. The skirt is gathered above white, scalloped-edged pantalettes and black and red, high laced boots. She stands on a green ground, with a pinelike tree to each side of her. A redheaded woodpecker with grey and white feathers appears to be pecking a cherry off the tree to the viewer's left. The child has blonde hair, parted in the middle, and blue eyes. Artist unidentified.
The 3 3/4-inch cove-molded gilded frame with a quarter-round outer edge is a period replacement.
Label TextAn attribution to John James Trumbull Arnold (1812-ca. 1865) has been considered for this painting and is based on the soft gray to reddish brown shading around the eyes, the soft brown lips divided by a thin, dark line, the single finger sticking upward, the arms jutting out stiffly from the body, and the rendering of waves over the top of the head and the ropelike curls behind the child's ears. However, the gross anatomical distortion evidenced here by the oversized head, fat arms, and extremely short, knock-kneed legs does not seem commensurate with Arnold's admittedly inaccurate but still more believable figural depictions. The discovery of other examples of Arnold's portraiture, particularly full-length likenesses that have landscape backgrounds, will help settle the attribution. Two other very similar portraits exist, one having a Connecticut history and the other having a tentative Cambridge, New York, association.
The girl holds a basket filled with cherrylike fruits, and a plump redheaded woodpecker at left is pecking a piece of fruit. The technique used to describe the curious bushlike trees flanking the child as well as the rendering of the sitter's face and figure provide important clues toward ultimately identifying the artist. The leaves have been thickly painted with dabs from a spongelike tool, shades of green being overlaid with darker greens, yellow, and rust.
Edith Gregor Halpert's notes state that the former, unidentified owner of the painting believed it represented Jean Macdonald Lee Myers, a daughter of Ramsey Macdonald Lee, who was related to Sir John Macdonald, prime minister of Canada, and to Ramsay MacDonald, a British prime minister. To date, all efforts to verify this information have failed.
ProvenanceFound in New York state by Edith Gregor Halpert, Downtown Gallery, New York, NY (but apparently believed by her to be of Pennsylvania-German origin); purchased from Halpert by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller in 1932 and given to CWF in 1939.