Theorem Painting: Girl with Doves1830–184025 × 19 × 1 1/4" (framed)Watercolor and ink on velvetGift of Jerry Grossman in memory of Shelley Clayman Grossman2001.4.101542092931Artist unidentifiedPaintingsThe American Folk Art Museum believes this work to be in the public domain. United StatesPaintings
Nineteenth-century paintings on velvet usually took the form of theorems, still lifes executed with the aid of hollow-cut stencils. This unusual depiction, however, is drawn freehand and seems more closely related to classical Greek funerary imagery that was introduced into the decorative arts after the mid-eighteenth century, following the rediscovery of the ancient sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum. A grave relief dating to about 450 b.c. in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, bears an image of a young girl holding two doves close to her chest. In art, and especially in portraits of children, birds often made an appearance, sometimes tethered to a child’s arm or hand. Symbolizing the soul, a bird might also indicate the child was deceased if the tether was cut.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Girl with Doves," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgportrait18301840 2001 4 1 Nineteenth-century paintings on velvet usually took the form of theorems, still lifes executed with the aid of hollow-cut stencils. This unusual depiction, however, is drawn freehand and seems more closely related to classical Greek funerary imagery that was introduced into the decorative arts after the mid-eighteenth century, following the rediscovery of the ancient sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum. A grave relief dating to about 450 b.c. in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, bears an image of a young girl holding two doves close to her chest. In art, and especially in portraits of children, birds often made an appearance, sometimes tethered to a child’s arm or hand. Symbolizing the soul, a bird might also indicate the child was deceased if the tether was cut.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Girl with Doves," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgportrait