Harriet Ann Hitchens

Artist Robert Street

Period1859

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions29.5 × 24.25 in. (74.9 × 61.6 cm)

SignedSigned in the upper left corner, “Robt Street / 1859.”

ClassificationsPortraits

Credit LineGift of Mrs. James W. Marshall, 1933

Object number423

DescriptionA young girl facing right wearing a blue dress with an over-the-shoulders neck line and white lace sleeves. She is pictured in an outdoor landscape with plants to her left and a view of fields, woods and hills in the distance to her right. Oval in format.
Curatorial RemarksHarriet is depicted against an atmospheric landscape setting that lends a romantic note to the painting. Harriet wears a blue gown with low bodice, typical of dresses for girls after 1840, and off-the-shoulder short sleeves edged with lace. Robert Street was a prolific portraitist from Philadelphia who specialized in half-length likenesses of notable individuals of the day. The painting could have been executed in either Red Bank or Philadelphia. The donor, Mrs. James W. Marshall, was Arietta Hitchens, sister of the sitter.NotesCaptured in oil on canvas at the age of ten, Harriet Hitchens (1849 - after 1910) was a daughter of the Reverend George Hitchens, pastor of the Red Bank Methodist Episcopal Church from 1858 to 1860.

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