Images(3)

Portrait of Helen M. Eddy (1842-1870)

Date1845

Maker Joseph Whiting Stock (1815-1855)

OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, Springfield

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOH: 45 in.; OW: 35 5/8 in.; OD: 3 1/2 in.

Credit LineBequest of Abby M. O'Neill

Object number2018.100.3,A&B

DescriptionPortrait of a little girl holding a yellow flower in her right hand and a doll with a pink dress in her left. There is a small cat in the lower left corner.Label TextHelen Eddy was born on September 18, 1842 in Springfield, Massachusetts to Wilson Eddy and Judith Robinson Eddy. In 1864 she married Monroe Bliss Washburn, a lawyer from New York City. The couple moved to New York City after their wedding and were still living there when Helen died just six years later in 1870.

After an accident crippled him as an eleven year old boy, Joseph Whiting Stock was encouraged by his physician to study art. Through help from his family and a specially designed wheelchair Stock was able to develop a successful career as a portraitist. He maintained a studio in Springfield, which he advertised in the Springfield directory from 1846 until 1852, and is also known to have traveled by train and coach in order to paint commissions throughout New England and upstate New York.
ProvenancePurchased by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller from the Downtown Gallery in New York City in 1932. The portrait then descended through the family to Abby O'Neill, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller's granddaughter, who bequeathed them to Colonial Williamsburg.