Baby with Whip

Dateca. 1850

MediumOil on academy board

DimensionsUnframed: 14 5/8" x 10 3/8" and Framed: 19 7/8" x 15 5/8"

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1936.100.6

DescriptionPortrait of baby shown half-length, full-face view with grey background. Drapery and tassles painted along top (two tassles) in colors of reds, greys and yellows alternating. Baby wears red dress with low square neckline with narrow edging. Dress has dots of black and yellow on it. Baby's arms are crossed and she/he holds a black whip in right hand. Baby's hair is blonde and eyes are brown; face is fat and round. Entire body painted in flat areas of color. Red dots are on whip's handle, which is brown.
Label TextSeveral portraits of small children with whips in their hands and in this same pose form a style group that cannot be immediately assigned to William M. Prior, Sturtevant J. Hamblin, William W. Kennedy, E. W. Blake, or George Hartwell. Although the rendering of facial structure in this portrait approaches the work of Prior himself, the delineation of hands is quite unlike the formulas developed by Prior and Hamblin: in such a pose Prior usually described hands as an elliptical mass, each finger resembling a puffy cigar; Hamblin usually drew a hard, dark line around fingers and hand in cartoonlike fashion. The hands and face of the baby in this portrait have a vague-ness of modeling that easily sets it apart from the documented work of identified artists in the Prior-style group.
InscribedA pencilled inscription on the reverse of the support, not in Prior's handwriting, appears to read "Mis Macmeter Mulbury 1 year 9/ Hencieele/Gill pt."
ProvenancePurchased by Mrs. Rockefeller from Katrina Kipper, Accord, Mass. Given to C. W. by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.