Mother and Child

Date1826

Artist Charles K. Palmer (active ca. 1826)

OriginAmerica, New York, Montgomery County (possibly)

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 33 1/2 x 28 1/4in. (85.1 x 71.8cm) and Framed: 30 x 23 7/8in.

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1933.100.4

DescriptionA half-length portrait of a woman with a child on her lap, the woman faces left, the child to the front. The woman wears a sheer white lace cap, her brown hair and tortise comb showing through it. Her dress is black, with a white lace collar. The child has a very round face and wears a red dress with a triple-strand coral necklace. The woman grasps the child's arms with her proper left hand.
The 2 1/2-inch molded and gilded frame is a period replacement.
Label TextAn inscription on the back of the primary support (now covered by a lining canvas) is said to have given the artist's name as "Ch. B. R. Palmer," but more recent evidence and a comparison with other signed portraits suggests that Charles Palmer bore the middle initial "K."
A possible Montgomery County, New York, origin has been posited for this unidentified double portrait based on where at least some other Palmer subjects lived.
InscribedIn 1955, before lining, an inscription on the back of the original canvas was recorded as: "Ch. B. R. Palmer, Pinxt./Decr. 1826".

See correspondence in the artist file regarding the artist's identification as Charles K. Palmer.
ProvenancePurchased from Edith Gregor Halpert, Downtown Gallery, New York, NY, by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, by whom given to CWF.