Probably the Knowlton Children

Date1829

Artist M. Warren Jr. (active 1829-1830)

MediumWatercolor and pencil on wove paper

DimensionsPrimary Support, boy's portrait: 5 1/2 x 3 1/16in. (14 x 7.8cm); Primary Support, woman on L: 5 9/16 x 3 1/16in. (14.1 x 7.8cm); Primary Support, woman on R: 5 1/2 x 3 3/16in. (14 x 8.1cm); and Framed: 10 x 14 1/8in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1958.300.7

DescriptionThree nearly full-face, half-length portraits, each on a separate support but grouped and framed together, the subjects' hands not shown and obscured by the blue wash of the background. The center image is a young boy in a brown, high-collared coat. To either side are young women, both having dark hair arranged atop their heads and held by tortoiseshell combs. The woman on the left wears a necklace of blue beads and a natural-waisted yellow dress incorporating a red sprigged decoration and having a sheer white ruffle trimming the neckline. The woman on the right wears a yellow dress with red dot decoration and a sheer white fichu that is decoratively gathered at points around the neckline. Faint traces of a blue bead necklace survive.
The 3/4-inch gilt frame is a period replacment.Label TextIn 1941 and 1942 Halladay and Thomas published these miniatures as Orin Knowlton [sic] and His Sisters, and in 1947 as The Knowlton Children (see Exhibited) — titles that would not contradict the postcard notations transcribed below except that the unidentified writer, evidently a grandchild of Orin Knowlton, might have more correctly identified the two women as "great-aunt" rather than simply "aunt?' The dates following the names on the postcards are puzzling; although the"1823" beneath the portrait of Orin Knowlton could indicate the year of his birth, the two women are obvi¬ously older than seven and three respectively if the por¬traits were painted in 1829, as the upper obverse date indicates.

M. Warren, Jr., has been identified as a portrait painter working in White Plains, New York, in 1830, although the location of documents or works support¬ing this assertion is now unknown. By obscuring these figures with a blue cloudlike wash at waist height, War¬ren has not very cleverly or successfully disguised a reluctance to portray his subjects' hands.
Inscription(s)In ink in script below each of the three separate miniatures is "M. Warren Jr./Painter A 1829."
In ink in script below the above inscription on the center miniature, in a different hand (possibly two different hands), is "Orin Knowlton, 1823". The "3" in this date has been nearly obliterated, and an attempt to correct or change it was unsuccessful. Three late-nineteenth-century postcards on which these portraits had been mounted bear the notations "Aunt Lydia An [sic] Knowlton/1822", Grandpa Orin Knowlton/1823", and "Aunt Roxy Rundle/1826" in what appears to be the same hand as the obverse "Orin Knowlton" inscription. The reverse of the left portrait bears the faint inscription "Lydia Ann."ProvenanceJ. Stuart Halladay and Herrel George Thomas, Sheffield, Mass. Halladay died in 1951, leaving his interest in their jointly-owned collection to his partner, Thomas. Thomas died in 1957, leaving his estate to his sister, Mrs. Albert N. Petterson, who was AARFAC's vendor.