Girl in Black Pinafore

Dateca. 1835

MediumOil on poplar panel

DimensionsUnframed: 42 x 24 5/8in. (106.7 x 62.5cm) and Framed: 45 1/8 x 27 7/8in.

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1939.100.1

DescriptionFull length oil portrait of young girl in interior setting. Girl stands on carpet which appears to have geometric design against a beige background in reddish colors. She stands slightly towards viewer's left. Behind her is brown wall, and open window through which vague green trees are visible to her right and a very vague incomplete red drapery is visible directly behind her, fading off to grey in upper right corner. Head stands out against the red drapery. At her feet to her right is a wooden stool with curving feet, upholstered with reddish fabric held on with brass nails. A white earthenware soup plate sits on the stool (it has scalloped edges with blue decoration) and holds raspberries. The girl has an open small wicker basket containing cherries in her left hand and holds two cherries in her right about to drop them with the raspberries. She wears a white dress, straight neckline off the shoulders, with short puff sleeves, and skirt reaching to her knees. White pantalets are visible below with tiny lace details. She wears white stockings, a royal blue slipper with tiny bow and yellow flower-like decoration on each. The bodice of her dress is a fancy lace design in geometric pattern, small dots, a center diamond with a flower in it. She wears a small heart shaped gold and red pin at the neck. She also wears a black pinafore over the white dress with an applied white zigzag border. Her hair is brown and parted in the middle with curls down the sides to her shoulder, and her eyes are blue. She is fairly expressionless, and the painting is very poorly defined, the sharpest areas are her pinafore.
Label TextSeveral factors make it difficult to envision the original appearance of this full-length portrait of a girl. The paint was initially thinly applied to its wood support, and an early abrasive cleaning with strong solvents both discolored and removed a good deal of the original surface. Distracting bloom in the varnish layer further obscures the artist's intent.

The likeness still possesses undeniable charm, how¬ever. The child's direct gaze, sweetly smiling lips, and dainty grasp of a stem of cherries all give her an air of appealing innocence. Her wide-rimmed, open-worked basket of fruit retains much of its earlier crispness of detail, as does the bowl of raspberries displayed so invitingly on the carved and upholstered footstool at her feet. Blue feather edging on the white Staffordshire bowl complements the blue of her slippers, and color touches such as these and the red fruit appeal to the eye as well as soften the harshness of a scheme that is otherwise largely black and white.

Unquestionably the painting's greatest visual im¬pact derives from the sharp contrast created by the girl's black apron against her white dress and from the bold¬ness of the apron's trim. This zigzag or sawtooth trim was probably fashioned by folding a ribbon and tacking it back and forth between the body of the apron and its outer border, thereby creating an open fretwork or fagoting that allowed the dress to show through it.

ProvenanceFound in Boston, MA and purchased by Mrs. Rockefeller from Edith Gregor Halpert, Downtown Gallery, New York, N.Y. Given to C. W. by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.