Child in High White Collar

Dateca. 1845

Attributed to Sturtevant J. Hamblin (ac. 1837-1856)

MediumOil on academy board

DimensionsUnframed: 14 x 10 1/8in. (35.6 x 25.7cm) and Framed: 17 1/2 x 13 3/8in.

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1939.100.10

DescriptionFull-face, half-length portrait of a young child holding a book in his/her right hand. The child is wearing a black dress with waistband and gathered in front and across sleeve; shaded in white; yellow and white buttons at shoulders. Brown hair parted in middle and falling in curls at forehead and in front of ears at temple. Brown eyes and red lips. The hands and fingers are outlined with red-brown and the book held in the right hand with thumb between open pages is red with white pages and fore edging, the binding with yellow stippling and other decoration.
Label TextOne artistic convention or cliché that Sturtevant J. Hamblin frequently repeated in his variously scaled portraits was to pose the subject holding a small open book in one hand. William M. Prior and others used the device on occasion, but Hamblin drew the book and particularly the hand grasping it in a distinctive way. The tooled bindings are described with characteristic dotted line striping and decoration; the fingers and hands taper toward the extended index finger, as in this straightforward little portrait, which is quite typical of Hamblin's simplest, most direct efforts. Baby with Doll (54.100.1) is also a small academy board likeness of a child.
MarkingsA modern inked inscription on the wood backboard reading "R. Phillip Clark/Braintree Mass." could refer either to the subject or to one of the painting's owners.
ProvenancePurchased from Edith Gregor Halpert by Mrs. Rockefeller. Given to C. W. by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.