Little Girl of the Woodfield Family

Periodca. 1830

MediumPastel on paper

Dimensions23.8 × 19.1 in. (60.5 × 48.5 cm)

ClassificationsPortraits

Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1941

Object number1637

DescriptionDepiction of a young female, perhaps two to four years of age, facing left and seated in a reddish-brown painted fancy armchair. The child has dark brown eyes set in a pale face, with dark brown hair worn parted in the center and tucked behind her ears. She wears an elaborate white gown, probably fine mull or cotton batiste. It has a wide, deep neck edged with ruffle, a high waist, and waistband of what appears to be broderie anglaise. The bodice front has two diagonal inset bands embroidered with cross-in-circle motifs flanking a large central foliate motif with five leaves. The child holds a large pink rose wtih green leaves in her left hand. The chair appears to have a cushion with a pink ruffle. The background is a cool gray with reddish overtone. The paper is mounted on white pine stretchers lined with an unidentified New York City-area newspaper that contains a meeting announcement dated 11 March 1830.
Curatorial RemarksArtist Micah Williams and his family relocated to lower Manhattan about 1827, and remained there until 1832. This likeness could therefore be an example of the pastel portraits that Williams continued to produce while studying oil portraiture in New York.NotesAssociation accession records identified this portrait as a "Pastel of little girl - of Woodfield family, Freehold." A detailed search has not turned up a family named Woodfield living in the Freehold area at that time, nor in any part of Monmouth County. The fact that the portrait is lined with a sheet from a New York City-area newspaper, combined with the newspaper's date of March 1830 may indicate that this child was not in fact a Monmouth County resident but rather from New York City.

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