Portrait of Mary Jane Smith (1836-1854)

Date1838

Artist Joseph Whiting Stock (1815-1855)

OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, Springfield

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 41 7/8 x 30 3/16in. (106.4 x 76.7cm) and Framed: 49 x 37in.

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1941.100.9

DescriptionOil portrait of young girl full length standing in interior. Wears pink dress with puff sleeves with tiny border of white lace at neckline, white pantalets and black slippers. A curtain of deeper pink is hanging in upper right corner, rug with green vine-like design on it matching that of companion portrait. She is pointing with her right hand to grey cat on floor which is playing with ball of yarn. She holds china doll in her left hand and behind her to her left is wooden doll's cradle, a brown child's armchair with sewing basket with pink ribbon on it. Her eyes are big and round and her short hair is parted in center. Period replacement 3 3/4-inch ma¬hogany-veneered splayed frames.
Label TextDid Joseph Whiting Stock intend to suggest the future lives of Mary Jane Smith (1836- 1854) and her brother William's (1832-1911) in these portraits? The artist showed Mary in a closed room with a basket and her doll and cat for companions. William, by contrast, is shown as a young scholar, beckoned outside by the open door, his hoop and stick, and his dog. Mary died, unmarried, of illness at the age of eighteen while working at a Methodist revival in Springfield. William purchased his father's carriage and stagecoach manufactory and in 1892 he sold a second-hand carriage to Charles Duryea who fitted it with an engine, producing what is reputed to be the first American automobile.
MarkingsWritten on the back of the original canvas support is "Mary Jane Smith, aged 2 years 4 months/Painted June 1838 by J. W. Stock"
ProvenanceDescended in the family; Mr. Richmond, Springfield, Mass.; Edith Gregor Halpert, New York, N. Y.; Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, AARFAM's donor.