Mrs. Oakley and Her Son, Robert G.

Date1813

OriginAmerica, New York, Hudson River Valley (possibly)

MediumWatercolor, pencil and ink on wove paper

DimensionsOverall: 9 1/4 x 7 1/8in. (23.5 x 18.1cm) Framed: 14 x 11 7/8in. (35.6 x 30.2cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1970.300.1

DescriptionFull-length double portrait of mother and child in interior setting. The woman is wearing a full-length white dress with a small circle pattern executed in pencil; the dress is shaded with grey washes; it has a high waist and short puffed sleeves. She wears black shoes and a white cap with a ruffled lace edge framing her face with several ringlets showing at forehead from under cap; black hair; blue eyes, red lips. In her outstretched arms and hands she supports a baby standing on her knees clutching a red and yellow rattle in his right hand and his mother's chest with his left. He is wearing a dress matching his mother's and red shoes or stockings. He has thin brown hair and blue eyes and rosy cheeks. The mother is seated in a yellow, lack and red decorated "Fancy Chair" with "X" members. The figures and chair are situated in a figured floor or carpet, blue with wavy parallel lines receeding to wall. A similar pattern is drawn on the wall in pencil above the chair rail, presumaby to represent wallpaper. A window is depicted to the left, its mullions outlined in brown ink with pale blue sky and clouds showing outdoors. A curtain shaded in various tones of red drapes the window; it has a black net fringed border with red tassels.
Label TextMrs. Oakley is shown here seated in a decorated "Sheraton fancy" side chair. The window drapery shown in the background served as the design source for a similar swagged hanging made for the actual window of this gallery of the museum. The period frame used on the small double portrait was painted to simulate a more costly crotch-grained mahogany veneered frame.
InscribedAn acidic, modern, heavy cardboard backing was removed from the picture and tossed. It bore the ink inscription APG 181D (a Hirschl & Adler inventory no.) It also bore a card inscribed in graphite "Oakley Family/Hudson River Valley." The handwriting on the card appears to have been that of former AARFAM registrar Jean Hildreth.
MarkingsHandwritten in ink below Mrs. Oakley's chair seat is "1813." On the verso, handwritten in ink in script in the upper right corner, is "Vrowtye Oakley/Robert G. Oakley/1 yr old." In modern script in pencil on a card taped to the cardboard backing of the frame appears "Oakley Family/Hudson River Valley." No watermark found.
ProvenanceHirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc. N.Y.