Baby with Basket and Seashell
Artist
Unknown
CultureAmerican
Dateca. 1860
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 22 3/16 x 32 3/16 in. (56.4 x 81.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch
Object number76.53.20
Not on view
DescriptionOil on canvas painting of a young child in white dress, holding a small basket in left hand. Next to the child is another basket with conch seashell inside, and a black and white dog laying on the floor.Label TextUnknown American 19th century Baby with Basket and Seashell, ca. 1860 Oil on canvas Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch 76.53.20 The horizontal format and basic composition of this anonymous child's portrait were probably borrowed from Thomas Sully's The Rosebud of 1839 (see illustration.) Baby with Basket and Seashell appears to be the work of an artisan painter, a craftsman who specialized in linear design and decoration. When such painters turned to portraiture, their techniques utterly transformed the academic paintings they used as models. In The Rosebud, Sully placed the child in an elegant, off-balance pose against a romantic landscape; he built up forms with sketchy brushwork and subtle blending of colors. The artisan painter of the Chrysler's portrait rendered the same subject in a style far removed from such sophisticated illusionism, substituting broad areas of flat color, a more homely setting, and a determinedly frontal pose. The matter-of-fact treatment gives the young sitter an air of solidity and seriousness that is both amusing and endearing. (On gallery label: illustration: Thomas Sully, The Rosebud, 1939, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass.) Edited By: DS Edited Date: 08/2005 Approved By: MHM Approval Date: 10/04/2005Exhibition History"Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "Man's Best Friends," Selden Arcade, Norfolk, VA, August 27 - October 19, 2013.Published ReferencesForeword by Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., preface by Clifford W. Schaefer, and introduction by Dennis R. Anderson, _48 Masterpieces from the Collection of Edgar William & Bernice Chrysler Garbisch_ (Norfolk, Va.: The Chrysler Museum, 1975), 63, plate 43. Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 53.
