Provenance
Recorded as from New York. Purchased in 1945 by Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch;[1] gift to NGA, 1956.
[1] A photograph of _Boy and Girl_ in the Jean Lipman photographic files, Archives of American Art, is inscribed on the back, "American Victorian, Robert Laurent." Since the artist Laurent was also an early collector of folk paintings, it is possible that this object may have passed through his hands at some time.
Accession Number
1956.13.7
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 107 x 81.3 cm (42 1/8 x 32 in.) | framed: 119.1 x 93.3 x 6.3 cm (46 7/8 x 36 3/4 x 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas American
Background & Context
Background Story
Boy and Girl from c. 1850 is an anonymous American portrait depicting two children in the straightforward manner of mid-19th century American folk portraiture. The c. 1850 date places this in the period when American folk portraiture was producing some of its most characteristic work—plain-spoken portraits of children that record the appearance of ordinary American families with the directness and sincerity that distinguish American folk art from the more formal portraiture of the academic tradition.
Cultural Impact
Boy and Girl is important in the history of American folk art because it demonstrates the plain-spoken portraiture that recorded the appearance of ordinary American families in the mid-19th century. The painting's straightforward manner—neither idealized nor condescending—represents the democratic quality of American folk portraiture that recorded children with the same directness and sincerity that it brought to adult subjects.
Why It Matters
Boy and Girl is mid-19th century American folk portraiture at its most direct: two children painted with the plain-spoken manner and sincerity that distinguish American folk art from academic portraiture. The c. 1850 painting records the appearance of ordinary American families with the democratic directness that characterizes the best folk portraiture.
