Young Boy in Green Suit

Date1790 (possibly)

Attributed to The Beardsley Limner (active 1785-1805)

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 35 1/2 x 27 3/8in. (90.2 x 69.5cm) and Framed: 40 1/8 x 32in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1964.100.4

DescriptionFramed painting. Portrait of a young boy in a green suit.Label TextThis painting was one of the six originally attributed to the Beardsley Limner on a stylistic basis by Nina Fletcher Little in 1957. Subsequent research has revealed several more portraits and indicates that "Young Boy in Green Suit" marks a transition between the tight, decorative compositions done early in the Limner's career and the more loosely painted, illustionistic images he created later. Here the conventional red- tasseled curtain becomes more than a colorful decorative device. It was used to create a circular space behind the sitter that is deepened by the suggestion of a misty landscape beyond. The child's features and hair were carefully painted, but the brushwork in other areas is sketchy. Light from a single source was used to create consistent shadows that outline and define the left side of the boy's face and his bent arm.

Folk Art Center staff feel that efforts to identify the Beardsley Limner as Sarah Perkins (1771-1831) (see Antiques, September 1984, pp. 548-565) have been inconclusive to date. The convenience name "Beardsley Limner" derives from the artist's companion likenesses of Hezekiah and Elizabeth Beards- ley of New Haven, Connecticut, portraits that are now owned by Yale University Art Gallery Other images of Connecticut and Massachesetts subjects were executed in the 1785-1805 period, many along the old Boston Post Road.ProvenanceMrs. Foster Stearns, Exeter, NH; M/M Bertram K. Little, Brookline, Mass.; Miss Mary Allis, Fairfield, Conn.