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Emily Moulton
1852oil on canvas
40 3/4 in. x 27 5/8 in. (103.51 cm x 70.17 cm)
Currier Funds and Ruth W. Higgins Memorial Fund, 1976.27
Samuel Miller
American
1807–1853
ON VIEW
Middle-class Bostonians of the 1840s and 1850s had many artists to choose from if they wanted to have their portraits painted. They could hire Chester Harding (1792-1866) or Francis Alexander (1800-1880) for a formal portrait in the tradition that stretched back to Gilbert Stuart (q.v.) and, before him, to John Singleton Copley (q.v.). They could hire William Matthew Prior (1806-1873) or a member of his large workshop for an academic picture or, if they wished to economize, for "a likeness without shade or shadow at one quarter price." They also could hire Samuel Miller of Charlestown, Massachusetts, who (if the seventeen or so portraits now ascribed to Miller are a fair sample) specialized in full-length portraits of children, often shown with family pets and stylized flower arrangements. The painting Emily Moulton, a full-length likeness of a little girl in a black dress and black lace-up slippers, with blue ribbons in her hair and a red book in her hand, is his masterpiece.
The inscription on the back of Emily Moulton identified the artist of a group of portraits that feature flat, frontal, stiffly posed figures, generally with full-cheeked, squarish faces and prominent ears. (The blue-green tinge to the flesh tones in these portraits, probably coming from the underpaint with which Miller prepared his canvases, is also typical.) Details of costume and accessory clearly delighted Miller, who in Emily Moulton took special pains with the figure's red patterned stockings, her lace pantaloons, her bracelet, and the double strand of beads at her neck. The portrait's delightful decorative quality is enhanced by the fanciful landscape visible through the window at right, and on the window ledge, the equally fancifully shaped urn holding a cheerful arrangement of garden flowers.
According to family history, the sitter in this portrait is Emily A. Moulton of Charlestown, Massachusetts. Emily was one of five children of Andrew and Anne Moulton, and the second of four girls. She was born in 1834 and, if this is indeed Emily, would have been eighteen years old when this portrait was painted. Clearly the sitter here is younger than eighteen, raising the question as to whether the portrait in fact represents one of the younger Moulton daughters or shows someone else entirely.
CT
REFERENCES
J. G. "Recent Acquisitions: Samuel Miller." Currier Gallery of Art Bulletin, 1977, p. 27.
Paul S. d'Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans. Folk Art's Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association. Cooperstown, NY: New York State Historical Association, 1987, pp. 111-17.
The inscription on the back of Emily Moulton identified the artist of a group of portraits that feature flat, frontal, stiffly posed figures, generally with full-cheeked, squarish faces and prominent ears. (The blue-green tinge to the flesh tones in these portraits, probably coming from the underpaint with which Miller prepared his canvases, is also typical.) Details of costume and accessory clearly delighted Miller, who in Emily Moulton took special pains with the figure's red patterned stockings, her lace pantaloons, her bracelet, and the double strand of beads at her neck. The portrait's delightful decorative quality is enhanced by the fanciful landscape visible through the window at right, and on the window ledge, the equally fancifully shaped urn holding a cheerful arrangement of garden flowers.
According to family history, the sitter in this portrait is Emily A. Moulton of Charlestown, Massachusetts. Emily was one of five children of Andrew and Anne Moulton, and the second of four girls. She was born in 1834 and, if this is indeed Emily, would have been eighteen years old when this portrait was painted. Clearly the sitter here is younger than eighteen, raising the question as to whether the portrait in fact represents one of the younger Moulton daughters or shows someone else entirely.
CT
REFERENCES
J. G. "Recent Acquisitions: Samuel Miller." Currier Gallery of Art Bulletin, 1977, p. 27.
Paul S. d'Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans. Folk Art's Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association. Cooperstown, NY: New York State Historical Association, 1987, pp. 111-17.
Exhibition
1979 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, "Friends of the Currier Gallery of Art: 20 Years of Acquisition." Jan. 12 - Feb. 25. 1980-1981 "Small Folk: A Celebration of Childhood in America." Jointly presented at Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY and New York Historical Society, New York, NY, Dec. 12, 1980 - Feb. 1, 1981.
1984 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, "Friends of The Currier Gallery of Art: 25 Years of Acquisitions." Jan. 8 - Feb. 12.
1986 Bowdoin College Art Museum, ME, "Masterpieces from the Currier Gallery of Art." Sept. 11 - Nov. 2.
1993 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, "Celebrate America! Three Centuries of American Art from the Currier." June 19 - Aug. 29.
1995-1997 "American Art from the Currier Gallery of Art." Organized by the Currier Gallery of Art and the American Federation of Arts. Traveled to: Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, Dec. 3, 1995 - Jan. 28, 1996; Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL, Mar. 15 - Apr. 7, 1996; Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, VA, Aug. 10 - Oct. 13, 1996; The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, Feb. 2 - Mar. 30, 1997; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA, Apr. 25 - June 22, 1997; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, July 18 - Sept. 8, 1997, cat. no. 10.
Provenance
Private Collection Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, NY
Purchased by Currier Gallery of Art, 1976
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